Those Crimson Eyes
by Sypnotick
Summary: The second greatest tragedy in Konoha's history had just happened - the Uchiha clan had been wiped out. However, some things must be destroyed before others can be created. A meeting between Itachi and Hiruzen changed everything that should have been. Sharingan!Naruto
1. Prologue

It was already nighttime when the second greatest tragedy in Konoha's history took place.

The moon was high in the sky, brightly shining in the dark night. Dark clouds hovered above Konoha, covering the moon, almost as if signifying an ill omen.

In the dark of night, a lone figure stood on a tall pole. The figure was dressed in the standard ANBU gear, Konoha's headband wrapped around his forehead and two red eyes shining from beneath his dark hair.

The figure was Itachi Uchiha.

Under the orders of Danzo, he had comitted a crime that will haunt him forever. His hands were now stained with the blood of his clansmen, friends, parents. The only consolation he had is that his younger sister had survived.

Itachi was standing on the pole, burning the image of Konoha into his mind before leaving. His lean figure was shaking, he felt tears welling up in his eyes, but he still held on.

Suddenly, he felt a pressence behind him. Itachi moved his chakra and extended it behind him, only to relax once he found out who the figure was.

"I'm sorry, Itachi," An aged voice came from behind him.

Itachi slowly turned around and looked at the roof of the building behind him. There stood a figure clad in white robes and with a white hat.

"Hokage-sama," Itachi greeted quietly.

The two figures stood silently, neither of them moving. Both of them knew what had happened tonight, yet neither of them blamed each other.

"This is already the best case scenario, Hokage-sama," Itachi's voice was quiet, full of sadness.

Itachi's shoulder started bulging and moving unnaturally. A crow burst out of his shoulder and then his entire body exploded into a bunch of crows.

The flock of black crows flew around in circles, cawing and looking around. The crows then dove to the roof, starting to converge into a black mass which transformed into Itachi.

Itachi's hand moved inside his pouch and took out a vial with two objects inside. Inside the vial, Hizuren saw two eyes floating, submerged in liquid.

Hiruzen's two eyes scanned the pair of eyes in the vial. However, once he got a closer look, Hiruzen felt short of breath.

"Mangekyo sharingan," Hiruzen said, his eyes wide.

Itachi only nodded his head as he watched the pair of eyes. His own eyes clearly reflected his own unstable emotions and his great attachement to these eyes.

"Whose are these?" Hiruzen couldn't help but ask.

"Shisui Uchiha," Came the answer.

Hiruzen felt his body grow cold as he observed the pair of eyes. Who was Shisui Uchiha? Probably the most patriotic shinobi in Konoha and the holder of the most powerful sharingan in recent history. And yet, some time ago, he had gone missing after leaving behind a suicide note.

Itachi's eyes shifted from the vial to Hiruzen. After a moment of consideration, he extended his hand towards Hiruzen.

"I-I can't..." Hiruzen said silently.

Itachi then took a few steps forward, his hand outstreched, "Hokage-sama, I know Shisui better than anyone. He had always dearly loved this village, so I am sure that he would want his eyes to stay here, to be used by a person who truly loves this village."

Hiruzen only took a few steps back, dodging the outstretched hand, "I have failed, Itachi. Because of my foolishness, so many tragedies had happened recently. What right do I have to decide who is worthy to wield these eyes?"

However, Itachi didn't stop. He took another step forward and almost shoved the eyes into Hiruzen's hands.

He then said, "Hokage-sama, I don't have much time. Come morning, I will be branded as the greatest traitor in Konoha's history and countless shinobi will be coming after me. If I die, my and Shisui's eyes will fall into the hands of a stranger. I can't let that happen."

Hiruzen wanted to fullfil the last request of this man, but he just didn't dare to take these eyes. With so many failures in his portfolio, he was losing faith in his own judgement.

Silence.

Suddenly, Itachi spoke up, "Hokage-sama, I believe that there is one more person who should be worthy of getting these eyes."

Hiruzen looked up, asking, "Who?"

Itachi's voice was resolute and firm as he said his answer, "The jinchuriki of the nine tailed fox, Naruto Uzumaki."

Naruto Uzumaki, the holder of the nine tailed demon. Indeed, if he were to gain the sharingan, then he would no longer have to fear its corruption. However, there was a slight problem with this plan.

"I agree with you, Itachi. If someone in this village is worthy of these eyes, then its young Naruto. However, Naruto is too young and doesn't understand the significance of these eyes. I just don't see a way to give it to him," Hiruzen shook his head.

On the other hand, Itachi already had a plan. His hands moved up, untying his heaband from his forehead. He took out a kunai from his pouch, moving it closer to the headband.

Hiruzen's body became cold as he could predict what would happen next. Just as he expected, the kunai was stabbed in the headband. Then it was slowly dragged across, leaving a deep horizontal mark.

As Hiruzen watched the mark slowly form, it felt as if the blade was slowly slicing him apart.

After the horizontal mark on the headband was finished, Itachi tied it to his forehead again. He then walked to the edge of the building, looking down to the silent streets.

"Hokage-sama, you don't have to worry about it. After all, I am a traitor," Itachi then looked down in silence. Moments later, his fists were tightly clenched as his sharingan glared with determination. "It can't be helped if a few victims appear once I was running from Konoha."

Hiruzen wanted to shout to him to stop, but he noticed that his jaw was tightly clenched, his teeth ground against each other. His whole body was rooted on the spot, feeling like a statue.

At this moment, his human side and his hokage side were clashing against each other.

However, before he could do or say anything, Itachi exploded into a flock of crows and disappeared into the village, leaving behind only a few feathers.

Seeing the crows disappear, Hiruzen's body gave out and he almost fell to his knees. He felt so dirty, useless.

What was the right decision?

Forcing the eyes onto Naruto for the benefit of his future?

Holding onto them and explaining it to Naruto once he grows older?

Maybe it was best to completely destroy these eyes?

Hiruzen could only release a deep sigh as he sat down on the ground and lit his pipe.

"Useless... I am simply too useless," Hiruzen mumbled as he felt the weight on his shoulders increase.

Chapter end

 **Author Notes:**

 **Hello, everyone! I would like to dedicate a bit of space here to talk about the novel and myself.**

 **To begin with, let me do an introduction of myself.**

 **My nickname is Sypnotick, at your service. I am an aspiring novelist, who is here to brush up on his skills. I already have an idea for my novel, but I thought I should let it brew inside my head for a bit longer. Meanwhile, I can write some fanfictions to work on my writing skills.**

 **With that being done, let's move on to the story itself, shall we?**

 **I think there are several things I should discuss briefly here.**

 **First of all, I think most of you quickly noticed the fact that this story will have a female Sasuke.**

 **In my honest opinion, I believe that the purpose of a male Sasuke is to be a friend/rival to Naruto. However, this story is a bit different in that Naruto will find his path early on, making a male Sasuke seem a bit redundant.**

 **Sasuke's character is an essential one to the story and I don't want to waste it. That's why, I believe that a female Sasuke would make more sense, because it would be easier to integrate her into the story.**

 **Secondly, there is the whole pairing thing.**

 **I already have an outline for this story, but I still haven't decided on some things yet; pairings being one of them.**

 **I enjoy pairings because they add more to the story (if done right). However, once you read a bit further, you will see that this Naruto doesn't seem like the type to be fully devoted to a single person, which would mean that a harem would make more sense.**

 **In other words, I am torn between doing NarutoX? Or turning it into a harem just for the challenge and the fun.**

 **Thirdly, there is the beginning of this story.**

 **You will find that the beginning is a bit slow and doesn't deviate too far from the canon one.**

 **The reason for going a bit slow in the beginning is because Naruto will be strong in this story. That's why, I want to give the characters more attention here. The first few chapters will let you get a feel for the characters with some action mixed in.**

 **As for the story itself, it is just the beginning so the butterfly effect hasn't kicked in yet.**

 **And finally, there is my release schedule.**

 **I am currently on break, so I have some free time. You can expect me to work a lot on this fanfiction and to pump out a lot of chapters. Though I still have some real life stuff, so I may slow down at some points.**

 **In any case, chapters will come out when I feel like it. On one day you may get several chapters, while others may go completely empty. My goal is to release at least several chapters per week.**

 **Alright, my small rant here is done.**

 **Thank you for reading this chapter and I hope you enjoyed it. This fanfiction is more of an experimental canvas for me, so don't hold back on the criticism, suggestions, flame and stuff like that.**

 **I hope to see you in the next chapter.**


	2. Chapter 1: A Dark Meeting

Darkness.

There is nothing but darkness here.

Wait... Where is 'here'?

A young boy with spiky blond hair looked around his surroundings. However, no matter how much he looked, he didn't recongize this place.

The young boy was Naruto Uzumaki, a resident of Konoha. Though said resident was now thoroughly confused.

"W-What is going on?" The boy asked as he looked around.

A cold feeling came from his feet, forcing Naruto to look down and see that there was water up to his ankles. He then took a look around and saw that he was surrounded by firm walls with pipes on the ceiling.

"Water? Then there's this closed space, pipes... Hey, was I thrown into a sewer or something?" Naruto yelled as he looked around in a panic.

Truth be told, Naruto just couldn't remember anything before waking up. He was walking back home and enjoying some snacks, his mood good. Next... Well, he was here.

Seeing that he woke up in a sewer, then does that mean that the villagers had grown tired of him and threw him out?

Panic, sadness, helplesness overwhelmed Naruto as he felt tears well up in his eyes.

"Why? Why me? What did I ever do to them?"Naruto then used his right hand to wipe the tears. Sadness slowly turned into anger as he ground his teeth.

"Fine! Who cares about that stupid village?" Naruto then picked a random direction and marched straight ahead.

"Even if they beg me to, I will never forgive them!" Naruto mumbled all the way as he quickly walked around the endless corridors, yet never seeing any exit.

Eventually, he found himself standing before a massive iron gate. This gate was formed out of massive iron bars that felt comically huge. In the middle of the gate there was a small paper with 'Seal' written on it.

"What the hell? What's the point of this gate if I can easily go through the gaps?" Naruto scratched his head.

He then looked at the deep darkness beyond the gate. There was nothing but darkness, yet Naruto felt an instinctual fear, all of his senses telling him to keep far away from that place.

As Naruto looked around more, he noticed that this place felt strangely familiar. He had never been here before, yet it felt like this place was very important to him.

Naruto's two blue eyes then fell on the piece of paper on the gates. This paper was very small, in comparison to the gates, yet it gave off a feeling as if it was the only thing keeping these gates closed.

Curiosity getting the best of him, Naruto carefully walked closer to the gate.

"What darkness! I am a big man already, there is no way I am afraid of the dark!" Naruto tried to convince himself as he inched closer.

Once he was only a few steps away from the gate, an ill feeling overcame him. He felt as if he was being watched by a vicious monster that wanted to devour him.

Bam!

A set of claws slammed against the iron gates. The vicious attack made the iron gates tremble slightly, but didn't cause any damage to them. The only damage done was that Naruto was sitting on his ass, trembling.

Two red eyes with slits in them opened up in the darkness, followed by two rows of massive razor-sharp teeth. The teeth were massive, making it look as if this monster could devour a building in a single bite.

The eyes glared at Naruto, giving off a bloodthirsty and vicious feeling. The feeling of dread welled up inside Naruto, making him unable to release a yell.

"So the warden graces me with his presence. Should I feel honoured?" A sarcastic, deep voice came from behind the gates.

Naruto didn't answer as he was still paralyzed from fear.

"Grrrr! That damn Yondaime... I vow that once I get out of here, I will rip your precious legacy to shreds!" The monster roared as it slammed its claws against the gates again.

As he watched the raging beast, Naruto's little mind came to the realization that these iron gates were firmly locking the beast on the other side. The beast was terrifying, but as long as it stayed on the other side, it couldn't harm Naruto.

Understanding this, Naruto's fear subsided somewhat as he slowly stood up, observing the massive beast. As his eyes got used to the darkness more, he saw that the beast was a massive nine tailed fox.

"The nine tailed fox? But... But... Wasn't it killed by the Yondaime? How come its here?" Naruto stammered as he observed the fox.

This was Kyuubi, the beast who wrought havoc in Konoha 6 years ago. Countless people believed that Minato Namikaze had killed it. And yet, here it was.

Furthermore, he was in here with it.

"Does that mean the villagers decided to feed me to the fox?"A dreadful thought formed inside Naruto's head.

Kyuubi, hearing Naruto mention it, grinned. "Me? Killed? BWAHAHAHA! As if a puny Yondaime could kill the likes of me. Even after sacrificing his life, the only thing he could do was lock me behind these gates."

Naruto was snapped out of his thoughts by the booming voice of the massive fox. His tiny mind processed all the information, but he had difficulty comprehending it.

The nine tailed demon was alive. The Yondaime was killed. His 'Grandpa', the current Hokage, hid everything behind a bunch of lies. And now he was thrown into this monster's prison.

Hateful!

Everything he was told were nothing but a bunch of lies! The hero he worshipped was nothing but a liar! The Hokage he so fondly called 'Grandpa' was also nothing but a liar! Everyone in the village were liars! They all hated him and even wanted to feed him to the demon!

The Kyuubi was satisfied as he watched negative emotions dance on the the boy's face. The fox released a deep chuckle, "So, what is that you are here for, brat?"

Naruto looked up with a complex look on his face. "What do you mean? Where is 'here'?"

Kyuubi's red eyes widened. Just that one sentence was enough for him to comprehend Naruto's situation, and he couldn't help but release a long, mocking laughter.

Hearing the laughter, more anger welled up inside Naruto.

"What is so funny, you stupid fox?" Naruto yelled.

Kyuubi looked down at him, its expression a smilling, mocking one. "Brat, do you still not understand? The Yondaime gave his life to put me behind these gates. However, just where on earth could a beast like me be sealed and undiscovered for so long?"

Naruto froze as he thought about this question.

The Kyuub's one massive tail moved as it pointed at Naruto. "This place is inside of you!"

The Kyuubi's smile then widened. "Lift up your shirt!" It commanded.

Naruto was angry, but his need to find out what the fox said surpassed his anger. He quickly lifted up his shirt and looked down. Naruto's curiosity turned into shock when he saw some weird, black writing on his own stomach.

The Kyuubi chuckled as he explained, "Do you see that? It is a special type of ninja art that you humans like to use to subdue beasts like me. You were chosen as a sacrifice by the Yondaime, cursed to carry me around inside of you until the seal weakens and I break out!" Towards the ending, Kyuubi was roaring and smashed his tails against the gates.

Naruto's two blue eyes were wide as he looked at the swirling writing on his stomach. Something then flashed in his mind and he slowly looked up. Naruto's gaze travelled up towards the middle of the two iron gates.

Finally he found it, a piece of paper glued on the gates. Naruto squinted his eyes and took a closer look at it. There was some writing on the paper... The very same writing was present on his stomach.

His little mind went into overdrive as realisation hit him.

The fox was sealed inside of him...

That would explain why all the villagers hated and feared him.

That would explain why everyone avoided him.

That would explain why everyone called him a demon.

All together, they form one conclusion: he was cursed to carry the fox, which is why everyone hated him.

The Kyuubi watched with glee as the light in the boy's eyes faded. His two blue eyes looked like two sparkling gems before. Now they were like a blue ocean that held great horrors beneath the surface.

Kyuubi crossed his front paws on the ground and placed its head on top of them. "Look at you, a child cursed to carry around a monster inside of him, feared and hated by all. Even us demons are not capable of such things."

Naruto's two small fists clenched into balls.

Hate!

Naruto was nothing but a 6 year old, so he didn't have a lot of experience. And yet, Naruto could now say that he truly loathed someone from the bottom of his heart.

A crafty glint shone in the Kyuubi's eyes. "Don't be sad, brat. I'm sure that those people only did it to protect you. After all, we can both see how you are dealing with having to carry me around inside of you."

"To protect me?!" Naruto yelled.

How can they call this protection? Beating him, mocking him, hating him, avoiding him, this was their so-called 'protection'? None of them couldn't stay by his side and help him? None of them cheered for him, for he was the one locking up this beast?

Naruto's teeth smashed against each other as his nails dug into his palms.

Overcome by intense emotion, Naruto suddenly remembered. He remembered how he got here.

He was walking home, enjoying some snacks, when he saw a figure appear before him. The figure wore the same uniform as the guys who protected him, so Naruto ignored him.

Naruto simply continued on his way, paying no attention to the figure. However, the figure's two red eyes locked onto him and he attacked Naruto. Next he knew, he was here.

Chuckle.

A dark, helpless chuckle escaped Naruto's mouth.

So even the people who protected him were now trying to kill him?

Kyuubi was enjoying the show as he watched hate well up inside Naruto. He was wondering how could he fan the flames a bit more, making Naruto weaken the seal. However, before anything could happen, the entire place started shaking.

Cracks started forming on the walls, water started smashing and swirling all around. Kyuubi and Naruto looked around in panic, wondering what was happening.

"AAAAHHH!" Suddenly, Naruto screamed in pain as he grabbed his eyes and fell to his knees.

Kyuubi watched in confusion, but then his eyes widened once he felt something.

"No... NO!" It roared as its tails started smashing at the gates, "I will not have it! I refuse to be bound by this cursed power again!"

SPLASH

A massive chunk fell out of the wall, smashing into the ground. The place behind the wall was nothing but an endless darkness. Suddenly, an eye opened in the darkness.

It was a red eye with three tomoe swirling inside.

"Sharingan... I will not be bound again!" Kyuubi roared as he felt the cursed power of the sharingan envelop the area.

Cracks formed on the ceiling and a new pipe appeared with the power of the sharingan coursing through it.

Kyuubi looked at Naruto and saw blood dribble from between his fingers. The boy was yelling and kicking as he fought against the pain.

Time passed and the shaking had finally subsided. Naruto was on the ground, heavily panting from the exhaustion. He slowly moved his fingers aside, revealing a pair of sharingan glaring at Kyuubi.

"Sharingan!" Kyuubi released a low growl, as if he was facing his most hated enemy.

Suddenly, Naruto fell into a coughing fit as he grabbed his throat and fell to the ground, passing out.


	3. Chapter 2: Bonds Severed

"ooooohhhh..." Naruto groaned as he opened his eyes.

Well, tried to open his eyes.

Panic overcame Naruto as his two arms shot up and touched his eyes. However, his small fingers came into contact with some kind of soft fabric which was wrapped around his head.

Trrrr..

Naruto heard the sound of the door sliding and someone walked inside.

"Awake, are we? Please don't touch your eyes for the time being. Your eyes have been damaged, so we had to perform surgery on them," A deep male voice explained as the figure moved across the room.

Naruto then heard the figure stop moving once it was beside his bed, and the sound of writing came to his ears.

"M-my eyes..." Naruto weakly stammered.

"Hmm?" The figure's attention focused on Naruto then. "No worries, you will be able to see. Your original eyes have been damaged, so we performed surgery and gave you a new pair of eyes."

Naruto suddenly was overcome with a strange feeling. His own eyes were damaged, and now he had somebody else's eyes inside his head.

"Alright, done and done. For the time being, rest up and regain your strength. Later on, we will remove the bandages and do some tests to make sure everything is alright with your eyes," Naruto then heard the sound of the figure leaving the room and door close.

However, before Naruto could think of anything, the door opened again and another figure walked in. Naruto was sure it was another figure because this one's footsteps were slower, fainter and there was the additional tapping of a cane.

"You are finally awake, Naruto," Hiruzen's voice came from the door.

If this was any other day, then Naruto would be happy hearing this voice. This was the voice of his beloved grandpa, the only person in this village who cared about him. However, today was not an ordinary day.

Naruto was sure that the meeting with Kyuubi was not a dream.

In other words, this old man had lied to him about the Yondaime, lied to him when Naruto would seek his help and lied to him about the Kyuubi.

"Leave!" He growled as he turned on his side, turning away from Hiruzen.

Hiruzen was stunned by the sudden aggression from Naruto. His years of experience surfaced as suspicions formed in his mind.

"Had someone talked to him before?" Hiruzen thought inside his head.

On the outside, he only approached the bed. "How are you feeling?" He asked kindly.

Naruto scoffed, "Great, I just found out I have a giant fox inside my stomach."

Hiruzen froze in place. A slight killing intent surged as he swore to kill the bastard who revealed this to Naruto.

"What do you mean, Naruto?" Hiruzen acted dumb as he asked.

"Don't play stupid, I'm not a little kid. I was inside of my stomach and I met the fox there... This is it, isn't it? The reason why everyone hates me, ignores me..." As Naruto talked his voice turned weak and shaky towards the end.

Hate or not, he was still a 6 year old. Finding out that he was hated by the village, yet being unable to do anything about it, left him feeling miserable.

Hiruzen took in a shaky breath and could only sigh, his youthful aura disappearing, seemingly aging by the second. "I... I am afraid that is so, my boy."

"Why? Why didn't you tell me?" Naruto asked, indignation in his voice.

Hiruzen took off his hat and sat down on a nearby chair. "I didn't want you to carry that burden, Naruto. I know that life had been hard for you, but at least you didn't have to carry around the knowledge of having the demon inside of you. I had believed that to be the best decision at the time."

"How good is it? Everyone hates me, yet I always foolishly believed that I could do something about it. I was stupid," Naruto stifled a sob, but his voice had still grown softer.

His grandpa may have lied, but at least he had done it with good intentions.

However, he quickly crushed those weak feelings. Like it or not, when Naruto would ask him why people hated him, Hiruzen would look him straight in the eyes and feign ignorance.

In that case, did this 'grandpa' also fake his own love for Naruto? How much of it had been Hiruzen feigning kindness just to keep him from finding out the truth? In fact, perhaps he even hated Naruto?

"For my sake?" Naruto asked, his voice still weak but laced with anger, "How about that man with the red eyes? He wore the same uniform as those guys who protect me, and yet he was the one who attacked me."

"Naruto, that man's name is Itachi Uchiha..." Hiruzen's voice then grew fainter. "A traitor of our village."

Hearing an Uchiha being labelled a traitor made Naruto freeze.

"Traitor?" Naruto asked.

Hiruzen nodded. "This man had attacked his own clansmen, committing great crime. At the time, he was escaping from my men, when he accidentally ran into you. What happened was an accident."

Naruto's emotion mellowed out again, but he had firmly decided to build a wall around his heart.

"What about Kyuubi? You said the Yondaime killed it."

Hiruzen looked through the window, at the giant stone head of Minato which was carved into a mountain.

"He was a hero, Naruto. He wasn't able to kill the fox, but he had still sacrificed his life to seal away the fox, protecting the village."

Naruto's two fists balled up, "Why me? Why did he seal it into me?"

Hiruzen's mouth clamped up. He desperately wanted to tell Naruto the truth, but he knew that Naruto wouldn't be able to handle it.

"He believed that you would be able to bear the burden, Naruto. By sealing the fox inside of you, Yondaime had hoped that you would protect this village and be hailed as a hero. The villagers don't hate you, Naruto. What they fear is the fox inside of you. Its presence is merely reminding them of the loved ones lost in the tragedy," Hiruzen explained.

Naruto was torn by indecision.

There was meaning behind each lie.

The fox was sealed inside of him because Yondaime believed he could carry the burden.

The villagers hated the fox, not him.

He wasn't told because Hiruzen didn't want him to suffer from that knowledge.

And yet...

Naruto had to come to a conclusion: forgive or hate?

Naruto now understood the circumstances, but that doesn't mean that it hurt any less. These lies were like daggers, each one stabbing into his heart, leaving behind deep scars.

...

"Leave..." Naruto's weak voice came from the bed.

Hiruzen sighed and didn't say anything else. He stood up, picked up his hat and walked out of the room.

Naruto had made his choice.

His anger may have lessened, but it didn't disappear.

Everyone around him was a liar.

Everyone around him would blame and beat him for the faults of others.

That was not something he had in his heart to forgive.

His decision was final:

Never believe anyone, never trust anyone. From this point forward, Naruto Uzumaki will live only for himself.

Chapter End

 **Author's Notes:**

 **Reader: Help, I need more chapters!**

 **Sypnotick: I'm here!**

 **Cookies for those who understood the reference.**

 **Sorry for the delay, guys. I am planning to move from one place to another, so I am busy with preparing everything and then there is other IRL stuff.**

 **I still write when I can, but as you expect, I don't have much time for it right now. Though you don't have to fear, because I do have several chapters stacked up, and I plan to release them every other day.**

 **Anyways, thank you for reading this chapter and I hope you enjoyed it.**

 **If not, then drop the bomb or anything else. As I said before, criticism and suggestions are always appreciated.**

 **See you in the next chapter! Toodles!**


	4. Chapter 3: Feelings Develop

6 Years Later

Wham!

Naruto was alone in a training field, punching a wooden training dummy. Fist after fist steadily slammed against the dummy, creating a smooth rhythm.

After 6 years, Naruto had changed greatly.

His blond, spiky hair had grown out, falling to the middle of his back. Two golden locks framed his face and went below his chin with an additional lock of hair falling over his new black eyes.

Years of spending most of his time studying indoors or training during the night made Naruto's skin a lot paler, yet beneath everything there were dense muscles from years of training.

A black T-Shirt, pants and boots that came up to his knees. Over his T-Shirt, he wore a black overcoat, sleeves rolled up to his elbows and a hood hanging in the back. On his neck there was also a mask hanging loosely.

To finish it off, his hands were wrapped in bandages up to his elbow, hiding every inch of skin.

Slam!

Naruto sharply inhaled, his two black eyes started swirling as they turned red. A sharingan with 3 tomoe in each eye appeared and locked onto the training dummy.

The 3 tomoe began to spin and Naruto's gaze focused. With a step, he then started unleashing a flurry of punches, each one striking what would be a fatal spot to a human.

Slam!

Naruto pulled back his bandaged hand as he wiped the sweat from his chin. The sharingan then fell onto his bloody, bandaged hand.

A sigh escaped his lips, "I suppose that is enough for today."

The 3 tomoe started swirling and were, once again, replaced by the black eyes. Naruto then sat down in place and began to meditate, working on his chakra control.

Hours went by as Naruto was lost in meditation, looking like a statue. Suddenly, Naruto opened his eyes as his sharingan formed again. He slowly stood up, lifted his mask, covering the lower half of his face, and pulled down his hood, hiding his face from the world.

With a sequence of hand seals, Naruto used the **Body Flicker** technique and disappeared in a flash.

A second later, Naruto reappeared on a tree with a swish of the wind. His two eyes scanned the surroundings, stopping momentarily on the Uchiha clan symbol on the walls.

Seeing that the place was completely empty, Naruto jumped down and dashed through the Uchiha Clan's compound.

It was once a compound which housed over a hundred members of the Uchiha clan, but now it was a ghost town, it's only resident a young girl. Just the thought alone created a dark, creepy atmosphere.

However, Naruto didn't seem to mind it one bit as he he ran through all the buildings with great familiarity.

Building after building went past Naruto, and he soon ran into the forest, where he found a small shrine.

He didn't hesitate as he entered the shrine and found a secret passage in the back of the shrine. Naruto looked back into the forest, making sure no one followed him, and then he walked into the secret passage.

The underground space wasn't very large. It was a cold, dark, stone room that only had a stone tablet and a banner of the Uchiha clan in the background.

"So those texts were right, huh..." Naruto mumbled as he sorted through his memories.

Massacre or not, this place was still the Uchiha clan's compound and the Uchiha clan wasn't completely wiped out. That's why, the village had left everything inside as is, which also includes the library.

Naruto had spent a lot of time sneaking into the library and looked over the texts, learning much about the sharingan. One time, he had accidentally happened upon a text that slightly mentioned the existence of this stone tablet and that it holds great secrets.

Curious, Naruto had spent a lot of years looking through the books and searching through the compound until he found this shrine.

His sharingan activated, Naruto began reading through the contents of the stone tablet, but soon found out that he was only able to read a small portion of it. Though that small portion was more than enough.

"Mangekyo sharingan, huh..."

What he could read from the tablet, the text touched upon the Mangekyo sharingan, about the abilities of the sharingan, such as controlling the tailed beasts, as well as some history lessons.

"So does that mean I need to unlock this Mangekyo sharingan to read more?" Naruto mused as he looked at the tablet.

Kill a loved one and be submerged in hate - that was the condition this tablet stated to activate the mangekyo sharingan. There was only a slight problem; Naruto had no loved ones.

Once the lies were uncovered, Naruto started recklessly training in order to forget. Time healed his wounds, but the scars were still there.

Ever since then, Naruto would only train, study and sleep, avoiding all human contact due to his distrust. This kind of lifestyle made him very reclusive, silent, emotionally numb.

"Can't do it, huh... Well, nothing I can do then," Naruto sighed as he made up his mind to leave. It was good that he had gained what he did.

However, he suddenly heard a voice behind him, "What are you doing here?"

It was the voice of a young girl and it clearly held hostility and anger in it. Naruto didn't even need to look back to know who it is. After all, he had been classmates with the owner of this voice for years now.

Naruto tilted his head to the side, glancing behind him. There stood Saori Uchiha, her body tense and ready to fight, her black eyes spitting fire.

The girl had long black hair and white skin. She wore a long-sleeved blue shirt with the Uchiha clan symbol on the back. A short black skirt, tight shorts underneath and blue sandals.

The eyes of the two were locked in a staring contest, creating sparks in the air. Saori glared at Naruto, but couldn't realize it was him because the room was dark and his face was hidden.

Saori fell into contemplation as she looked over the invader. As she stared at the stranger, a strange sense of familiarity crept into her heart. He was slightly taller than her, meaning that he was roughly the same age, black eyes and...

"N-Naruto Uzumaki?" Saori asked with an uncertain voice.

Naruto didn't answer, but the more Saori looked at him, the more she was sure of it. This was the strongest student in the academy, the man she made as her goal to surpass.

Those indifferent black eyes and his firm, unshakable stance formed a powerful aura, as if he was insurmountable mountain.

Whether it was the age, his stance, the look in his eyes – everything pointed that her intuition was correct.

Saori's voice turned heavy and grim, "Why are you here, Naruto Uzumaki?"

To her surprise, Naruto's response was only to turn around and dash straight at her. The room was small, so Saori couldn't run anywhere and it took less than a second for Naruto to appear before her.

His bandage hand shot out and grabbed Saori's wrist, then his own leg was placed in-between Saori's.

With a twist of his body, Saori was lifted off the ground, and she felt her whole world spinning as she roughly landed on her back, resulting in a few coughs. She opened her eyes, looking at the dark ceiling.

Her eyes then looked further up and saw Naruto towering over her. His lower half of the face was hidden by a mask, a hood hid his hair and the two sharingan glared at her from the darkness.

"W-wait... Sharingan? How?" Saori's mind was in chaos as she was wondering how could Naruto have the sharingan.

But she didn't have the time to wonder as she saw Naruto move, his two red eyes still locked onto her.

Saori's teeth grinded against each other and she curled up her lower body and kicked out at Naruto, forcing him to let go and take a step back. She quickly stood up and got into a stance.

"Who cares, I will beat the answers out of him!" Saori thought and charged at Naruto.

Saori then unleashed a flurry of attacks, all aimed at Naruto's vital points. However, to her dismay, Naruto's sharingan was a mature one and he had spent years in the Uchiha clan's library, studying their scrolls.

He didn't practice the Uchiha clan's martial arts, but he did know the stances themselves, which made Saori unable to land her attacks.

One punch was sent to his face, but it was quickly side stepped. Naruto then ducked, avoiding a sweeping kick, and finally, his hand shot out and blocked Saori's last attack.

Saori's anger grew as she saw that none of her attack were working.

"This bastard is using my clan's doujutsu against me!" She yelled inside her head.

She wouldn't admit it, but she was very jealous now. Naruto had a fully matured sharingan, while her's hasn't awaken yet.

Not one to let go of this opportunity, Naruto stepped forward and got closer to Saori. Naruto's free hand grabbed Saori's face, forcing her to look into his spinning sharingan.

 **Genjutsu: Sharingan**

Saori tried to resist as she looked at Naruto's sharingan, but her eyes eventually grew dull, and Naruto felt his control over her body increasing.

A few moments later, Saori was completely stuck in the genjutsu, under Naruto's control.

"If I remember correctly, you are the clan leader's kid, right?" Naruto asked.

Saori obediently nodded her head, "Yes."

Naruto's eyes narrowed. "What do you know of this stone tablet?" He asked.

"Nothing," Came the plain answer.

Naruto was surprised by the answer, making him tilt his head. "You know absolutely nothing about the tablet?"

"I didn't know it existed until now," Saori answered.

After a moment, Naruto gave up on this line of questioning. In any case, it took him years to find this place so perhaps it's not a surprise she didn't know.

"Alright, tell me the secrets of the sharingan," Naruto commanded as his sharingan spun rapidly in his eyes.

Saori's body slightly trembled but still obeyed. "I only know that the sharingan has a second form called the mangekyo sharingan," Saori's answer came again.

This time, Naruto felt like slapping the girl.

"You are the clan leader's kid, why do you not know anything?" Naruto asked in a helpless voice.

"I was always focused on my training, planning to get my revenge against Itachi," Saori answered, as if it was obvious.

Naruto let out a sigh as he backed away.

"This girl..." He shook his head.

"N-No... You... Y-you bastard!" Saori stammered as she was finally breaking free from Naruto's genjutsu.

Shisui's sharingan was regarded as the strongest one in the clan's history, having incredibly potent genjutsu abilities. Naruto himself didn't know about this, but he had years of practice, so he knew his **Genjutsu: Sharingan** was very powerful. For a genin to break out so quickly, Naruto was surprised.

"As expected of the young miss of the Uchiha Clan," Naruto praised her.

Though that didn't mean anything to Saori as she was directing a cold glare at him. Naruto didn't seem to mind as he then turned around and started walking towards the exit. He had gotten as much as he could here.

"I-I won't forgive you! Y-you hear me, Naruto Uzumaki?!" Saori yelled as she was almost free from the illusion.

Hearing Saori's yell, Naruto stopped and glanced back at her. "I hardly care."

Saori stopped yelling as she was taken aback. Naruto's glare was cold, indifferent, looking strange when it was displayed by a such a young boy. This was a very different Naruto from what she was used to seeing in the academy.

Back there, he would display an indifference that signified his lack of interest. However, this was a cold one, as if even death wouldn't move him. She looked at Naruto silently as he then turned around and walked out of the basement.

There was no hesitation in his footsteps, he didn't even glance back.

Naruto didn't hesitate with such actions because the whole village already hated him. Even if word got out, what will they do? Hate him two times more? Place him in a prison for a few days for breaking into a clan's compound?

Saori's hatred also didn't mean anything to him. She was nothing more than another person in the already long list. At this point, what difference did it make if another person hated him.

Naruto scoffed as he walked into the forest, "Might as well head home. After all, tomorrow is graduation day."

 **Author's Note:**

 **Hello, my dear readers.**

 **My preparations are done and I will be moving out tomorrow. I will be releasing two chapters today to satisfy you for a bit, as I won't be able to continue writing for a few days.**

 **Though I do have pen and paper, so I will be keeping myself occupied in the journey, but that doesn't change the fact that I won't have any way to release chapters.**

 **Anyways, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed the chapter.**

 **Drop a flame, a bomb, a nuke or just call me a dumbass, if you wish. If you liked it, any suggestions, comments are also always appreciated.**

 **I will see you guys in a few days! Toodles!**


	5. Chapter 4: Oh, my dear instructor!

The next morning, Naruto sat in the classroom, quietly observing the scene. Most of the graduates have already gathered, wearing their Konoha's headbands proudly, talking to each other.

Naruto own headband was loosely tied to his left bicep, showing his disinterest in taking care of it. He also didn't pay any mind to those talks; his black eyes scanned his peers and then he continued spending his time looking outside.

The doors to the classroom opened and Saori Uchiha walked inside. Her eyebrows were pulled together, her face set in a deep frown. As soon as she walked in, her eyes landed straight on Naruto, giving him a vicious glare.

However, she didn't say or do anything. A second later, she turned away and sat down in her own seat. To be honest, Naruto was actually surprised by that. He was already expecting shinobi to show up at his front door, questioning why he broke into the Uchiha clan's compound.

"Seems like she kept quiet about yesterday. Is it pride?" Naruto wondered inside his head.

Time passed and the rest of the students filled the empty seats. Then their teacher, Iruka, along with Mizuki entered the classroom. All the students settled down as Iruka then gave a long speech about friendship and teamwork which, truth be told, Naruto completely ignored.

Next, all the students were assigned to teams of three under a jounin instructor.

"Next is team 7: Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno and Saori Uchiha. Your jounin sensei will be Kakashi Hatake," Iruka said as he then moved on to the next team.

"Geh!" Naruto heard a weird sound as he looked down and saw Saori looking at him with a 'are you serious' expression. The two looked at each other for a while. Saori then gritted her teeth and turned away.

With all of the teams created, Iruka left the building with Mizuki, having done their job. All the students quickly found their teammates and started getting to know each other better. From time to time, the jounin came to pick up their genin teams and they left the classroom in small groups.

Eventually, there was only Naruto, Sakura, Saori and the annoyingly loud clock.

Tick, tock.

The three sat in absolute silence, the atmosphere was so heavy that no one was daring enough to breathe loudly. Saori held visible hostility towards Naruto because of yesterday. On the other hand, Sakura was friends with neither of them, and she could feel the tense atmosphere.

Over an hour passed as the three sat in silence when they finally heard the sound of footsteps. The door was opened and spiky, grey hair popped out through the door.

A mask covering his lower face, his headband slanted on his face and covering his left eye. The man wore the standard jounin uniform.

As the man walked in through the door, he looked over the three. He probably sensed the tense atmosphere in the room as you could clearly see the motivation disappear from his remaining right eye.

"This will be an exciting team to work with..." The man sighed as he didn't even bother to hide his disappointment.

"Well, nothing I can do about it. You three, meet me on the roof," The man disappeared into thin air after giving out his order.

Saori and Sakura got up and went to leave the room. As the two were leaving, Sakura frowned as she felt that something was very wrong here. Her eyes widened as she looked back.

"Hey, Naru- Huh?" Sakura noticed that Naruto was not following so she was about to call out to him, but Naruto was no longer in the classroom.

On the rooftop.

The grey-haired man appeared on the roof and took out a small book from his pouch. He then comfortably leaned against the railing as he read his book. A second later, his eye narrowed as he looked to the side and saw Naruto standing there, also leaning against the railings.

"You know the **Body Flicker** technique?" Kakashi asked, slightly surprised.

Naruto nodded his head as he sat down on the ground, his back leaning on the railings.

"Surprising. Few genin know this jutsu," Kakashi commented.

Naruto shrugged his shoulders. "I'm a quick learner," was the answer he gave.

"So I heard," Kakashi said quietly, not pointing out the fact that first you had to have a teacher. But then he went back to his book, seemingly losing interest in discussing this further.

It took only a minute for Sakura and Saori to appear on the roof. As they looked around, both of them were surprised that Naruto was already here. Well, Saori's surprise was indicated by a quiet 'Che' and a furrow of her brows.

Saori and Sakura went to the front and sat down, waiting for Kakashi to start the conversation.

Kakashi placed the book in his bag and looked at the three genin. Sakura looked nervous and enthusiastic, Saori was openly glaring at Naruto who was ignoring everything with practiced ease.

Kakashi could feel his motivation sink even further, "Ehem, how about we start with some basic introductions?"

Seeing no response, he sighed. "Let me go first then. The name is Kakashi Hatake. I enjoy reading books and relaxing. The thing I like the most is... Er... I dislike... You know what? You go next, Pinky."

Sakura held back on commenting on the introduction and followed Kakashi's instructions, "My name is Sakura Haruno. My hobbies are studying and learning new things. I like my friends and I hate Ino. As for my dream... Hm, it would probably be to become a splendid shinobi."

Kakashi nodded his head. A very average, girly introduction but it was better than nothing. "Alright, you are next, eyebrow," Kakashi pointed his finger at Saori.

Saori's glare then turned to Kakashi who only shrugged his shoulders. "What? When you constantly glare like that, it makes it seem like you have only one eyebrow."

Saori's mouth opened as she tried to say something, but closed her mouth as a red tint appeared on her cheeks. Her expression relaxed slightly, obviously embarrassed by the comment.

"My name is Saori Uchiha. My hobbies are training. I don't like anything in particular. As for my dislikes... No, who I hate is-" Saori turned to Naruto with a glare, "Would be a certain someone. As for my dreams, all I want to do is to restore my clan and capture the traitor."

"Goodness gracious... Couple problems?" Kakashi asked with a sigh.

Saori's face became red as she stammered, "C-couple? There is no way I would be a couple with 'that'?" Saori pointed her finger at Naruto.

Everyone turned to the man in question. However, Naruto completely ignored their play, lost in his own thoughts.

"The spotlight is on you, blondie," Kakashi woke Naruto up.

Naruto eyes didn't even twitch at the nickname. After all, he had been called worse things. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki. My hobbies are training and studying. For my likes and dislikes... Well, there isn't anything worth pointing out. As for my dream, I just want to become strong."

Kakashi let out a breath of relief, and cheered inside his head, "I can work with this team!"

Kakashi's right eye curled up into a crescent shape, signifying his smile. "Well, now that the introductions are out of the way, let's move on to more serious topics. The thing I want to inform you about is your genin exam. Just to tell you now, what you did before was a nothing more than a test to find out if you have the aptitude to become shinobi."

All three genin's eyes fell on Kakashi, quietly listening. "Your exam will be held tomorrow in training ground 7. Come by at 7 am and we will conduct your test then. Well then, are there any questions?"

Kakashi looked around at the three genin, only to see them sitting quietly. Seeing that there are no questions, Kakashi used a **Body Flicker** jutsu and disappeared from the rooftop.

Only the three genin were left now. Sakura was trying to decide whether to invite her teammates to a meal to get to know each other or perhaps its best to stay quiet. After all, it seems like Saori would very much like to take Naruto's head off his shoulders.

Saori didn't say anything as she stood up and went towards the exit, quickly leaving the roof.

Naruto then also stood up. His hands went through several hand seals and he disappeared with the wind, not leaving any trace.

"So that's how he got here so fast. Rather handy, " Sakura mumbled quietly. With a sigh, she then stood up and also made her way home.

Time passed and the night was approaching. Naruto was meditating in the middle of the forest, when he suddenly opened his eyes as he sensed a person nearby.

"A person? Doesn't seem like a patrol. It looks more like he is running away from something," Naruto started guessing inside his head.

Curiosity getting the best of him, he stood up and silently followed the figure. Chakra surfaced on his body and he jumped up, landing on a branch.

Naruto then also dashed as he followed the target as discreetly as possible. After a few more minutes of running, the person finally stopped to take a small break, giving time for Naruto to catch up.

Naruto's pace slowed down and he hid his chakra even further. With quiet steps, he approached the person, wondering who it was. As the tree branches moved aside, Naruto's instructor, Mizuki, came into view.

The person had a giant scroll with the word 'forbidden' written on it. He was panting heavily while looking at his surroundings with caution. After making sure that no one was there, he released a laugh.

"Finally, I got this scroll," Mizuki then picked it up and looked it over, greed shining in his eyes.

"This doesn't look like a scroll that he should have," Naruto thought inside his head as he observed the word 'forbidden' written in large print.

"Mizuki, oh Mizuki... Don't tell me that you couldn't hold it back and actually stole this?" A small smirk appeared on his face.

Naruto had long since seen through this instructor's facade. Mizuki would pretend to be polite and kind-hearted around others, but he would always have trouble completely hiding his rotten personality around Naruto.

"Before I give this away, maybe I should take a peek inside? There is no harm in learning a few jutsu from here, right?" Mizuki mumbled as he observed the scroll.

"How about you give me this scroll?" Before Mizuki could come to a decision, a voice came from the side.

Mizuki took out a kunai as he looked to the side and saw Naruto standing there. He was standing next to a tree in his usual outfit, his pose relaxed and his eyes showing that he was amused by the situation.

Mizuki growled quietly, "Naruto Uzumaki..."

Naruto nodded his head, "Indeed," however, Naruto's next words shocked Mizuki, "My dear instructor, I don't have time here. I am very interested in taking a look at the scroll there, so I will have to get rid of you before the anbu come."

Mizuki released a chuckle as he wanted to mock Naruto, but to his surprise, Naruto disappeared from his spot and appeared before him in a flash, his fist reared back.

Mizuki stumbled back as he narrowly avoided the powerful punch. He wanted to curse a lot now, but he had to swallow his words as Naruto continued his attack.

His fists moved as Naruto barraged Mizuki with a flurry of fists, much to the latter's surprise, as some fists landed on his body, injuring him.

Mizuki's anger surged as he swiped at Naruto with a kunai, forcing him to stop the attacks. Mizuki then jumped up and landed on a branch.

"Che, it seems like there is more to you than what you have shown us, demon. Very well, how about this?" Mizuki said as he took off a giant shuriken off his back.

With a twist of his body, he threw the massive shuriken at Naruto. The shuriken flew at Naruto at great speed, like a scythe of the reaper. Naruto could clearly hear the sound of the wind breaking, and he knew that he would be torn in half if he didn't dodge.

Naruto bent his knees and rolled ot the side, narrowly dodging the shuriken. However, it wasn't over yet as Mizuki unleashed a volley of shuriken and kunai, each weapon flying at Naruto with great precision.

Seeing the volley incoming straight at him, Naruto extended a hand and caught a kunai by the loop, then twirled it in his fingers and got a good grip on it. He then used the kunai to deflect all the incoming projectiles.

Mizuki wasn't a chunin for nothing. His accuracy with thrown weapons was great, he was only slightly rusty from spending years teaching little kids. As Naruto was blocking the onslaught of projectiles, injuries started appearing on his body as several projectiles stabbed into his body.

Eventually, Naruto took a step back after surviving the barrage of projectiles. His blood rolled down his white bandages and fell to the ground, staining the grass red. Naruto then suddenly felt a sense of danger as he heard the sound of the wind breaking. He didn't need to look behind him to know that the massive shuriken has returned and was flying at him from behind.

Mizuki smirked as he took off the second massive shuriken off his back and threw it at Naruto, forming a pincer attack.

Naruto's eyes grew serious as his body tensed. Sensing the two approaching shuriken, Naruto crouched on the ground, his long hair hiding the sharingan that just formed.

Closer.

Closer.

Naruto's eyes widened as he felt the two shuriken were just about to reach him. Then he just barely jumped off the ground, twisting his body horizontally.

The sharingan watched in slow motion as the two shuriken went past him, one right above him and one right below him.

Naruto could clearly feel the wind swirling around the shuriken, the tips of his hair having been slightly cut by the whirling scythes of death.

Whoosh.

The two shuriken flew past him as Naruto's body completed the spin and he landed on the ground. Mizuki watched with wide eyes as Naruto had dodged his attack, not expecting a genin to possess such skill.

As soon as Naruto landed on the ground, chakra exploded around him and he jumped onto a nearby tree, bringing him to the same level as Mizuki. However, what further surprised Mizuki was that Naruto was crouching on the bark of a tree.

"Tree walking? You shouldn't have been taught this yet!" Mizuki yelled as he couldn't understand where Naruto had learned all this.

Naruto didn't respond as his chakra swirled around his body and then wrapped around his legs. He kicked off the bark, leaving a clear set off footprints on it, and he shot at Mizuki like an arrow.

Mizuki just barely avoided the hit as Naruto flew past him and landed on another tree, forming cracks on the tree bark.

Slowly, Naruto stood up and turned to face Mizuki. The two's eyes met as they watched each other.

"S-Sharingan? H-how?" Mizuki observed the pair of crimson eyes.

Suddenly, he remembered something. "Shit, mustn't look straight at them," Mizuki tried to close his eyes, avoiding the contact.

However, it was too late as the two had been looking at each other for a while now. Naruto's sharingan spun and he used **Genjutsu: Sharingan**.

Mizuki felt himself fall into darkness, with countless sharingan observing him from all directions. In reality, his eyes grew dull and his body became stiff as a board. Naruto's hands rapidly moved through a set of hand seals and he used the **Body Flicker** technique.

He disappeared from his spot and quickly reappeared behind the stiff Mizuki. Chakra swirled around his right hand as Naruto sent out a chop towards the back of Mizuki's neck.

Mizuki felt cold air gather at the base of his neck. His chakra flared and he broke out of the genjutsu at the last second. His experience kicking in, Mizuki lunged forward on instinct. However, he was a tad too late and the attack still hit his neck.

The attack was too light, so it didn't directly knock him out, but it did rattle his brain. Mizuki fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes and kicked up a cloud of dust. His experience screaming at him, Mizuki stood up and just barely held himself up on his shaky legs.

Naruto also jumped off the branch to a nearby tree. He then kicked off the tree and jumped to another one.

Through his blurry vision, Mizuki could only see a dark shadow constantly dash all around him. No matter how much he tried, Mizuki just couldn't completely grasp Naruto's position.

Suddenly, Mizuki felt someone appear behind him. But before he could react, a chakra enhanced punch landed on his ribs, sending him into a coughing fit. Mizuki tried to strike back, but the figure was gone, only to appear behind him again.

This time, a kick was sent to Mizuki's knees, striking him there and forming a crack in his knee joint. Mizuki yelled in pain as he fell to the ground, holding his knee.

His vision had finally cleared up, only to see a pair of black shoes enter his field of view. Mizuki looked up and saw a Naruto's two sharingan looking at him, his right fist reared back.

"Goodnight"

The fist flew down and hit Mizuki right in the face, sending him into the blissful unconsciousness. Naruto didn't look back as he hurried towards the scroll. He had wasted too much time with Mizuki and the anbu would soon arrive.

He quickly pulled out a scroll and a pen from his satchel. After picking up the forbidden scroll, Naruto's eyes scanned the contents, sorting things into two categories: things he could use and things he was unable to use.

Anything useful was then written down on the empty scroll, up until Naruto felt more presences approaching. He hid his own scroll and then he pretended that he was simply reading the forbidden one. After all, with his recent temperament, it would be suspicious if he had completely ignored it and acted the goody two-shoes part.

A few seconds later, several figures clad in the standard anbu attire appeared in the clearing. They scanned the surrounding and found the unconscious Mizuki and Naruto.

Some anbu scattered into the surroundings, forming a perimeter, others went to check up on Mizuki. Meanwhile, a man with the mask of a tiger approached Naruto.

"Genin Naruto Uzumaki," A rough voice came from behind the mask.

Naruto looked up from the scroll at the masked anbu. The masked man then asked in an indifferent tone, "Did you defeat the traitor, Mizuki?"

Seeing Naruto nod, the masked anbu's eyes landed on the scroll in Naruto's lap. His two eyes narrowed. "Naruto Uzumaki, you do realize what the word 'forbidden' means, do you not?

Naruto nodded his head again. "Something that is not allowed to see the light of day, unless certain requirements are met."

"If you know this, then why did you read the scroll? The act of reading it without permission has serious consequences. Well, what is your excuse?" The anbu asked.

Naruto shrugged as he played dumb."It was opened by Mizuki by the time I got here. After defeating Mizuki, I got curious, so I sat down and took a look at the scroll. Honestly, I don't even know what this scroll is."

The masked man was stunned as he couldn't rebuke this shameless and obvious lie. He could argue that Naruto was lying, but he wasn't here so how could he know the truth. Furthermore, if Mizuki was already reading it, then Naruto truly had no way of knowing it was a forbidden scroll.

Naruto rolled up the scroll and threw it to the man. "Well, I know what I know already, so what now? Gonna take me to the Yamanaka's place?"

The man stood quietly as he observed the scroll. Eventually he shook his head and released a sigh, "Come with us to meet Hokage-sama. You will give an explanation of the situation and Hokage-sama himself will decide what to do with you."

Naruto didn't resist as the group picked up Mizuki and left the area, only leaving a few anbu to guard the place.

It didn't take long for Naruto to appear in Hizuren's office. At first, the old man was surprised to see Naruto appear before him. Then, the old man was relieved and happy, but once he heard what was going on, he still acted the part of the Hokage.

Naruto just barely changed the story, mixing lies and truth. He clearly explained that he was training in the woods when he sensed Mizuki running. Driven by curiosity, he had ran after him and found him reading from the scroll, planning to learn from it before giving it to someone. In that moment, Naruto had acted and defeated Mizuki.

"Oh, please. I have been playing politics for years, you expect me to fall for that?" Hiruzen said inside his head. However, he was more amused than mad.

He had never dreamed of finding himself in such a situation with Naruto. Though now that it was happening, he felt a strange sense of nostalgia, suddenly remembering the old, younger Naruto.

He was very happy to see that Naruto didn't actually hold any animosity towards him. However, Naruto didn't act friendly either. It felt like the two were nothing more than strangers who didn't know each other.

"I see, so that is what happened," Hiruzen said as he reclined in his chair and smoked his pipe. His eyes then fell on the scroll.

"Well, it can't be helped. Bringing in the Yamanakas just because you took a glimpse at the scroll is not worth it. Furthermore, your act of catching a traitor is praiseworthy, so you can consider that as your reward. Any objections?" Hiruzen asked as he looked around.

The anbu and Naruto were all quiet.

Hiruzen then waved his hand, dismissing the anbu, "Alright, you can go now. Bring Mizuki to Ibiki for an interrogation. Also, strengthen the security around the scroll."

The anbu all bowed and left, leaving only Naruto and Hiruzen.

The old man observed Naruto who had several injuries from the fighting. "You have grown stronger," He said, his voice turning softer, kinder.

Naruto nodded his head. "You, on the other hand, have slipped up. When an academy instructor is stealing forbidden scrolls and bringing them to mysterious people, you should be getting suspicious."

Naruto's words were rude but neither of them minded it. The two we more like strangers now, but past memories couldn't be forgotten and bonds couldn't be completely severed.

Hiruzen nodded his head. "Indeed. Mizuki was a sly one, he completely slipped under my radar."

"A lot of people have," Naruto said harshly.

Hearing those words, Hiruzen froze as he felt a strange sensation after being scolded by a genin. And yet, he couldn't say anything in his defence, because that was the truth.

Naruto observed the aged Hokage with firm eyes. Watching the old man, old memories resurfaced in Naruto's heart. The old days when he had called Hiruzen his grandpa. However, those memories just brought more pain, so Naruto used his years of training and completely suppressed them.

Naruto then turned around and was about to walk out of the office, but then he stopped at the door. His figure slightly shook, as if he couldn't decide whether to leave or stay. Hiruzen only watched with a slightly surprised look.

"There is still a job for you here, so pull yourself together," After leaving those words behind, Naruto quickly left the office.

Hearing those words, Hiruzen's eyes widened as he watched the door in surprise. For some weird reason, he felt strangely invigorated by those words.

A small smirk still formed on his lips as he puffed on his pipe. He then glanced at the stack of papers on the desk and felt a sudden urge to finish the paperwork now. Without wasting anymore time, he grabbed a brush and started going through the papers.

Meanwhile, Naruto went to his house and treated his injuries, preparing for tomorrow's test.


	6. Chapter 5: Debut of Team 7: Genin Exam!

Next morning, team 7 gathered in the training ground, waiting for Kakashi to arrive. The 3 genins were waiting anxiously. Well, at least Sakura was. The girl was pacing back and forward nervously. Meanwhile, Naruto was leaning against a tree and meditating. Saori was simply sitting on the ground.

Sakura, still seeing the heavy atmosphere, stepped back. Eventually, she balled her fists and determination appeared on her face.

"Waiting for this exam sure gets on your nerves, huh?" Sakura asked with a nervous chuckle.

...

Nothing.

Sakura's smile became forced as she was blatantly ignored. "I wonder why Kakashi-sense is late? He said to get here at 7 am, but he is nowhere to be found," Sakura said as she glanced around.

...

Nothing.

A vein bulged on Sakura's forehead. "AH, fine! Do what you guys want!"

Sakura also sat down near the three, ignoring Naruto and Saori.

Naruto opened one eye and glanced at the brooding pink girl. His eye then traveled to Saori, only for their gazes to meet.

Sparks formed in the air as Saori looked away with an angry huff.

"Is this girl going to target me during this exam?" Naruto wondered.

As the three were sitting around the tree, Kakashi appeared in a cloud of smoke.

"Good morning, everyone," Kakashi's right eye turned into a smile.

"You're late!" Sakura lashed out, still angry from being ignored.

"Well, you know, strange things happen in life. One second I was walking to the training ground, and the next second, I was trapped in a genjutsu. There is nothing I could about not being able to get out, right?" Kakashi waved away Sakura's anger.

Sakura stared at him with an 'are you serious' face.

"In any case, it's time to start your exam"

The three genin then gathered around Kakashi who took out two bells from his pouch.

"This will be your exam. You guys have until noon to take these two bells from me. If you can't, then you will be sent back to the academy," Kakashi smiled as he tied the bells to his waist.

Sakura also smiled.

Take the bells?

She had the two strongest students in her grade... Kakashi may be a jounin, but if they work together, then they should be able to take those bells.

Sakura then turned to the side and her expression froze.

Saori's eyes had 'Competition' written in them, obviously intending to compete against Naruto.

Naruto also had his patented 'leave me alone' look on his face, having no intention of working in a team.

"Da fuq, you guys? Do you guys want to fail?!" Sakura screamed in her head.

"Ehem, I also forgot to mention one thing. Each bell is a ticket to pass this exam. In other words, only two people may pass while the last one will be sent back to the academy," Kakashi smiled.

Sakura broke out into cold sweat as she felt an aura of fire erupt from Saori while an aura of ice erupted from Naruto.

Sakura shivered as she shook of the snow. She wanted to protest, but was completely cut off.

"All right, all preparations ready?" Kakashi then raised his right arm. "3...2...0," He said lazily.

The three genin were caught off guard by the lazy voice and jump in numbers. However, once they gathered their bearings, all of them disappeared.

Kakashi nodded his head as he walked to the tree and sat down.

"Good kids, good kids," He then took out an orange book. "With this, I just have to not show any openings, and I will have about 4 hours to read my book in peace."

...

About half an hour had passed since the start of the test, yet nobody had moved for the time being.

Saori had been crouching on a branch, observing Kakashi all this time. However, Kakashi had shown no opening all this time. He had been simply reading his book, but he gave off a feeling as if nothing could touch him.

Sweat flowed down her white cheek, dripping below her. Saori let out a sigh as her eyes narrowed. Chakra faintly covered her legs and she jumped from one branch and to another.

She silently tree hopped and switched her position. Once she arrived behind Kakashi, Saori took out several shuriken and threw them at him.

Kakashi watched with an interested look in his eyes as the four shuriken flew out from both sides. He didn't bother standing up or putting away his book. He simply observed, curious as to what Saori would do next.

Those shuriken seemed like they would fly off into the distance, but Kakashi then saw something reflect off of the shuriken.

With a tug of Saori's hands, wires revealed themselves. Following her hand movements, the four shuriken started changing their trajectories and started flying in a circle around Kakashi, the wires tying him firmly to the tree.

After Kakashi was tied to the tree by the wires, Saori fell from the top of the tree and landed before Kakashi.

Her hands shot out towards the bells and grabbed them before putting some distance between them. Once she saw that Kakashi was still firmly tied to the tree and the bells in her hands, Saori was in disbelief at first.

However, a confident grin broke out the next second.

"Can I take it that the test is over, sensei?" Saori asked as she shook the two bells.

Kakashi only smiled in response. Saori suddenly had a bad feeling and her body tensed up. She watched with surprise as the tied up Kakashi went up in smoke and was replaced by a log.

Her mouth hanging open, Saori stood there dumbstruck.

"When did he?" Saori asked quietly.

She then felt that something was wrong and looked at her palm, only to see that those 'bells' were actually two rocks.

Tap, tap.

Saori froze as she felt 2 taps on her shoulder. She turned around and saw Kakashi standing there, smiling at her. He then pointed at the two bells at his waist.

"I'm afraid this test is not over yet," He chuckled.

Saori quickly jumped back and threw a volley of kunai straight at Kakashi. The volley flew forward with great speed, but they weren't very accurate. All Kakashi did was catch one kunai, spin on his heel, avoiding the majority, and, after completing his spin, he threw the caught kunai at Saori.

Kakashi's kunai was quick and precise, appearing before Saori in a flash. The girl watched with surprise as the kunai was about to hit her, but at the last second she came to her senses and slightly moved her body, just barely moving out of the way with the kunai only leaving a deep wound on her body.

Saori winced slightly as she felt the pain. She looked down and saw her blue shirt stained with blood. She then looked up at Kakashi who stood there as if nothing had happened, reading his book in leisure.

"One hand... With just one hand," Saori stammered as she felt a sense of desperation.

However, she then suddenly remembered Itachi, the man who had killed her entire clan. Her thoughts then – unwillingly – traveled to Naruto, the strongest student in the academy.

These two had always been her goals to surpass. She even fought regularly against one of them.

"Right, there is no time to get depressed here," Saori encouraged herself and got into a stance.

Seeing this, Kakashi quirked one of his eyebrows, "Even after being shown the difference, she still hasn't given up? If anything, she has the spirit," He noted in his head.

Saori's body was covered in chakra and she charged forward at Kakashi.

She quickly arrived before him and punched him straight in his left rib. Because Kakashi held his book in his left hand, it was awkward for him to defend with that hand.

However, Saori was surprised when Kakashi leaned back slightly and raised his left leg, blocking the attack with his knee.

Saori then dropped to the ground and did a leg sweep, trying to knock Kakashi to the ground. However, Kakashi jumped off the ground with his right leg, dodging the attack again.

Two kunai knives shot out from Saori's sleeves and appeared in her hands. She charged forward again and caught up to Kakashi, stabbing him straight in the stomach and chest.

With a small chakra burst, Kakashi jumped again and flipped in the air. Saori could only observe with wide eyes as Kakashi was straight above her, his right hand extended and he placed it on Saori's head, doing a handstand.

Saori gritted her teeth as she spun on her heel and slashed with one kunai, forcing Kakashi to avoid again.

Once she completed her turn, Saori threw her free kunai straight at Kakashi, who dodged it lazily by leaning his head to the side.

Saori wasn't done as multiple shuriken flew out from her hands. The two stood with a distance of only a few meters, so the shuriken reached Kakashi very quickly. What surprised Kakashi was that only a few were aimed at him.

Kakashi's eye narrowed as he jumped to the side to avoid the shuriken. But he was surprised once he saw that some shuriken started hitting each other and redirected their flight path, continuing their pursuit of Kakashi.

"Ho-oh... That is Itachi's technique, if recall correctly," Kakashi mumbled.

With a graceful dance, Kakashi avoided the shuriken one by one. His eyes then travelled to the sky once a shadow fell over him.

Saori was in the air, multiple kunai in her hands. With a spin, the kunai flew out in seemingly random directions. However, Kakashi observed with fascination as the messy flight path started correcting itself once the kunai hit each other.

The kunai flew quickly and would stab the shuriken right in their empty middle sections, nailing them to the ground.

Kakashi was confused at first, but the he noticed that more and more kunai knives nailed these shurikens and a bad feeling formed in his stomach.

His feeling came true as soon as Saori fell from the sky and landed on the ground. Once the sun was no longer blocked, it was reflected off of countless wires around Kakashi. Only now did he understand that Saori's seemingly random volley of shuriken and kunai was actually a trap.

As the last of the shuriken were nailed to the ground, Kakashi was tightly bound by wires from all directions.

Saori also didn't waste time as she quickly went through several hand seals and placed her hands to her mouth. Her modest chest puffed out as she yelled out, ' **Fire Style: Fireball** '

As she let out her breath, a massive fireball flew out of her mouth at the bound Kakashi, hitting him head on.

An explosion broke the ground and shot out countless rocks in all directions. Saori had to cover her eyes from the bright light and the scalding heat.

She panted heavily and wiped off the sweat. She never had large chakra reserves so it was difficult to release a fireball that big.

"Did I get him?" She asked weakly as she looked at the large burn mark on the grass.

"Hmm... Don't think so," Soari's eyes widened as she turned her head and saw Kakashi standing right next to her. He was holding his chin and looking at the burn mark like a detective trying to solve a mystery.

"I think he is still alive," Was the conclusion he said out loud.

Saori's mouth hung open. Suddenly, a hand popped out of the ground and grabbed her ankle. She watched with surprise as the gloved hand quickly pulled her underneath the ground, leaving only her head above.

The ground before her moved as another Kakashi appeared and dusted off his clothes. " **Earth Style:** **Double Suicide Decapitation** , a pretty handy technique, don't you think so?" He smiled.

She turned to the first Kakashi and saw him disappear in a cloud of smoke and the second Kakashi took out his book again.

"In any case, it has been fun playing with you, but I still have other genin to test. How about you stay here and cool off for a while?" Kakashi smiled and disappeared.

Saori only felt the cold from the ground seep into her body and felt her mood drop.

"I couldn't do anything to him," She sighed.

...

Sakura had been sitting in bushes for almost an hour now. She had been thinking of how she could face off a jounin alone but just couldn't come to a conclusion.

Earlier, she had heard a loud explosion.

"Guuhh... One of those two are already fighting sensei. What if one them takes the bells? What do I do?" Sakura lamented as she grabbed her head.

"I don't think you have to worry about that," A voice came from her side.

"Why so?" Sakura asked.

Sakura turned to her side with a curious expression and froze once she saw Kakashi standing there. No, rather, he was lying down right besides her.

Kakashi had taken out a pair of binoculars, looking around the forest. He then turned to Sakura with a smile.

"Don't worry, I don't see him."

Sakura yelled in panic as she jumped back. She quickly took out a kunai and took a stance, but her trembling legs clearly displayed her nervousness.

Kakashi inwardly shook his head. "Now then, just how am I supposed to test her. Her profile stated that taijutsu isn't her forte. On the other hand, neither is ninjutsu or genjutsu... Wait, what?"

Kakashi tilted his head as he observed Sakura. Suddenly, he smacked his fist onto his palm. "Right, her profile said she is good at chakra control and she is smart. In that case..." Kakashi went through a series of hand seals.

 **Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing**

Sakura only saw Kakashi go through some hand seals and disappear into thin air. She looked around, confused, as the wind picked up and started swirling around her.

Suddenly, Sakura heard the rustling of the bushes to her side. She swallowed her saliva and the grip on her kunai tightened. She could feel cold sweat appear on her back as she was anticipating Kakashi's attack.

A moment passed and the bushes calmed down. Sakura, seeing this, also calmed down, loosening her grip. However, that proved to be a mistake as a giant brown bear appeared out of the bushes and rushed straight at Sakura.

"Hell no!" Sakura yelled, turned around and dashed away. "There is no way I am fighting against a bear!"

Sakura ran out of the forest at the speed of light and stopped once she noticed some ball on the ground. She looked down cautiously and saw that it was Saori's head. Her black hair was all around her lone head, her eyes closed and mouth open.

Sakura screamed at the top of her lungs as she dashed the other way.

"Killed... I am going to be killed!" Sakura yelled but was suddenly forced to a stop again.

The bushes in front of her started moving again. A black and white figure appeared from between the bushes.

"It's! Is that... Huh?" Sakura was confused by the figure.

The bushes started moving again and the figure completely revealed itself. Sakura's two eyes widened, because the figure turned out to be a very small, adorable creature.

"A... A penguin?" Sakura asked with a blank look.

"So it is..." A rough voice came from behind Sakura.

Cold sweat covered Sakura's voice as she had never heard this voice before. Carefully, Sakura turned around to face whoever spoke.

Her eyes popped out of her head once she saw the bear was right next to her, standing on its hind legs.

"I wonder what this penguin is doing here?" The bear asked as it scratched its head.

Sakura stood with a blank look on her face.

"Talking bears, penguins, Saori's decapitated head... Haha... ehhhh I think I'm going to sleep," With that said, Sakura promptly passed out from an overload.

Once Sakura was down on the ground, blissfully sleeping, Kakashi appeared from the forest and shook his head.

"Her profile said she was good at dispelling genjutsu... Though I suppose detecting it is a whole other thing," Kakashi sighed.

Kakashi then turned and looked at Saori. She was still underground, unable to get out of it by herself. Previously, Saori was simply yawning as the cool ground had made her slightly sleepy.

"That, however, was not part of my plan... Oh well, I suppose I'll continue the test," Kakashi then disappeared from is place, off to find his last student.

...

Deep in the forest, Kakashi reappared on a tall branch.

"Now then, I sensed his chakra somewhere nearby," Kakashi looked around cautiously. His lone eye suddenly widened as he saw a figure.

"This is a bold way of 'hiding'," Kakashi mumbled quietly.

To his surprise, Naruto was not hiding at all. He had simply ran deep into the forest and was now relaxing. Kakashi observed Naruto, who was casually leaning against a tree, reading a book.

Kakashi also didn't feign ignorance and walked up to Naruto without hiding his presence.

"Having fun?" He asked.

Naruto simply shrugged his shoulders and ignored Kakashi, making him twitch his eyebrows.

"So... Are you not going for the bells?" Kakashi pointed at the two bells hanging by his waist.

To his surprise, Naruto extended his palm towards Kakashi, but while still reading his book..

"If you give them to me, then sure. Otherwise, no," Naruto smirked.

Kakashi's eyebrows started twitching as he looked around the place to see if there were any traps. Though no matter how much he looked or sensed, there were none.

"You know you will fail if you don't get these bells, right?" Kakashi pointed out one single flaw in Naruto's plan.

Naruto then moved his book away and looked at Kakashi, the edge of his lips curled up into a smile.

"Fail? Me? I would like to see that," Naruto then turned back to his book.

Not understanding what gave Naruto so much confidence, Kakashi couldn't help but ask, "Yes, you will fail. No matter how good your grades in the academy were, do you think they grant you a free pass? I'll tell you now, there were a lot of geniuses who did even better than you, and they still had to take exams."

Naruto scoffed."Fair enough. Then tell me this, how many of those geniuses were jinchuriki?"

Hearing the term 'jinchuriki', Kakashi's eyes narrowed.

"Tell me, Kakashi, is Konoha in any position to fail our team? Mind you, our team has the jinchuriki of the Kyuubi as well as the heiress to the Uchiha clan. This is your only chance to tie us down to your village and you are still talking about failing us?" Naruto lazily explained as he read his book.

"I'm not in the mood to engage in witty banter with you, sensei. You should know that if you don't accept us, then Konoha will lose their only jinchuriki and the Uchiha clan. That is the very reason why you are coming to find us yourself, right?" Naruto's pleasant disposition disappeared and was replaced by cold indifference.

Kakashi released a sigh as he shook his head, "Smart one, aren't you... In any case, you are not even interested in testing out your strength against a jounin? I recall that your dream was to become strong, right?"

Naruto nodded his head, "Right. However, the 'strong' pick their battles wisely. Why would I fight against you when I know I can't defeat you? In any case, I think its best that you spend some time thinking about the excuse you are going to give everyone so we can pass."

Kakashi felt stiffled as he wanted to strangle the cocky kid. However, all he could do was sigh and disappear. He already understood that Naruto was not going to move. Instead, it was best to spend some time with those other two and to come up with a plausible excuse to pass them.

Time passed and noon eventually came around. An alarm rang in the training ground, signalling the end of the exam.

Everyone then returned to the main clearing and waited for Kakashi to appear. Sakura and Saori were both worn out and filthy at this point. Both of them had bruises on their arms, legs and faces, dirt covered their clothes and their hair was messy.

In contrast, Naruto was sparkly clean. No even a speck of dirt was on him, causing the two girls to look at him strangely.

Poof!

A cloud of smoke appeared in front of the genin. As soon as the cloud of smoke dispersed, Kakashi appeared, also looking worn out and tired.

"The test is now officially over. I am sorry to say this but none of you could get the bell," Kakashi shook his head, as the two bells on his waist jingled.

Saori and Sakura both became depressed at the thought of going back to the academy. Especially Saori. Kakashi then glanced at Naruto who had an indifferent expression on his face.

"The true meaning of this test was teamwork. I wanted to see if you guys could put aside your diffecrences and work together, despite the risk. Unfortunately..." Kakashi shook his head.

"However, you guys don't have to despair," Kakashi smiled and he saw the hope lit up in two female's eyes.

The two girls looked up at Kakashi, surprised.

"This kind of self-sacrifice is very difficult. It is difficult to find it even among veteran teams. That's why, I had also looked into your individual abilities, "Kakashi then pointed his finger at Sakura.

"Sakura, your performance was the worst of the group, "Sakura hung down her head embarrassed, "However, you were a quick learner. You acknowledged your weaknesses and tried setting up countless traps in order to capture me. Many of those traps were actually very good. Overall, your attitude was good from beginning to end and you showed good aptitude. Although you failed to get the bells, you just barely pass based on that," Sakura's eyes widened as a happy smile appeared on her face and she stomped her feet in happiness.

Next, Kakashi pointed at Saori.

"Saori, your performance was excellent. Your combat abilities are definitely top grade among genin and your talent shined through here. Your greatest weakness is your lack of experience, but that was covered by your talent. Every time we fought, I could feel your growth and you improved by leaps and bounds. No matter how I look, you have the makings of an excellent kunoichi, though your mindset needs to be adjusted," Saori also puffed out her chest and nodded her head.

Lastly, Kakashi pointed at Naruto. The two girls also looked curiously at him. Sakura and Saori were aware of each other when fighting Kakashi. The only reason these two didn't team up was because they were afraid that the unseen Naruto would appear at the last second and steal their spoils. However, he had not appeared a single time throughout all the exam. Did this guy fail?

"Naruto... You, err, displayed excellent situational awareness. You perfectly understood your own situation and were careful in choosing your own battles. Though your attitude needs some adjustment, you also have the excellent makings of a shinobi," To the end, Kakashi's tone was flat and dead as he was speaking to Naruto.

"Anyways, we all learn and grow from our mistakes, right? You guys can rejoice, for you have passed the test and team 7 is officially formed. Now I will go and report this to Hokage-sama," Kakashi went through his heand seals and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

"We passed!" Sakura threw out her arms and then turned to Saori with sparkling eyes, "You were amazing, Saori. I saw you fighting against sensei, you know. I knew you were strong, but you surpassed all my expectations."

Saori nodded her head, "Well..." Saori paused as she saw Sakura looking at her with sparkly eyes. Saori faced the other direction, before saying, "After seeing you struggle so much against sensei, I think I see you in a new light."

Sakura nodded her head with a wide grin. Her eyes widened as she turned to Naruto. "How about you, Naruto? How did it go on your end?"

Naruto only gave her a casual look before turning away and walking away, "Nothing much."

Saori and Sakura frowned after Naruto poured a bucket of cold water on their parade. They were now official genin and the two girls had fiercely struggled to their last during these few hours. It was an emotion roller coaster of disappointment and happiness. However, Naruto treated it as if it was nothing.

"What's his problem?" Sakura huffed.

"Don't mind him. We shouldn't disturb Mr. Strongest there," Saori said as she rolled her eyes.

Naruto didn't react to the blatant insult and simply walked away.

"Well... Anyways, would you like to go grab something to eat? I have not eaten anything, so I am starving," Sakura said.

Saori nodded and the two were also making their way out of the training ground, chatting.

Only Naruto was left as he was casually walking back. Suddenly, he stopped as he looked at his bandaged arm. Originally, his bandages were white, but a smear of red appeared on the bandages and started extending.

"Che!" Naruto clicked his tongue in annoyance.

Truth be told, no one would know just how much Naruto wanted to join into the fight. After all, this was an opportunity to test his strength against a jounin, as well as using the sharingan to expand his own arsenal.

However, Naruto's injuries from his fight against Mizuki hadn't healed yet. Those injuries may not have been serious, but having multiple shuriken and kunai stabbed into your body won't disappear after a few hours.

Naruto sighed as he tightened his bandages and continued making his way back.

 **Author's Notes:**

 **Well... What can I say? For some reason, I got the urge to upload this one chapter.**

 **Is it OCD? Perhaps I couldn't stand the fact that I had left the scene right before the exam. Yes, probably the LSD kicking in... Wait, what? I mean OCD! OCD!**

 **In any case, this is over and done with. My inner weirdness has been satisfied as I feel that the loose end has been tied up.**

 **Because I will be moving out in a few hours, I will be gone for a few days now. No need to panic and start writing poems in my honour, because I have no plans of departing this world yet. And I have all the plans to return to this fanfic once I am done.**

 **Really...**

 **No need to give me that blank look.**

 **Thank you very much for reading this chapter, and I hope you enjoyed it. If I won't be crushed under a mountain of luggage, I will see you guys in a few days. Toodles!**


	7. Chapter 6: Debut of Team 7: C-Rank!

After passing the genin exam, team 7 spent an entire month doing D-rank missions and training. Aside from that, Saori and Sakura had started getting a long slightly better while Naruto was mostly inside his own world.

Today was another day that Team 7 had come to the Hokage's office to receive their mission. The team 7 stood in place silently, watching Hiruzen look over the scrolls on his table.

"Hmm... I think that its about time that you guys head outside the village to gather some experience. What do you think?" Hiruzen asked as he looked up at the three genin.

"Can we?" Sakura asked, her eyes sparkling. She then turned to Kakashi. "Can we?"

Kakashi nodded his head. "Well, your teamwork needs some more improvement but that can be fixed with time. All in all, I believe that you guys can handle C-rank missions now."

Everyone's gazes then focused on Hiruzen, almost as if saying 'give us the mission already'.

"Alright, C-rank mission it is. Let's see here..." Hiruzen looked over the missions. Eventually, he pulled out one scroll from a large pile. "How about a bandit subjugation mission?"

As soon as he mentioned about bandit subjugation the three genins focused their attention. They were all eager to finally go out and properly fight.

Seeing that everybody was in agreement, Hiruzen started writing down something on a piece of paper.

"Alright, your mission is as stated before – a bandit subjugation. There is a bandit outpost in the northern mountain range. Villagers say that there are a lot of bandits there and that they continuously conduct raids on nearby villages, sucking them dry. There are also several rogue ninja that were reported to be somewhere around genin level. This is a tough mission, but I believe that you will handle it," Hiruzen finished writing on his paper and handed the scroll to Kakashi.

After receiving the scroll, team 7 left the building and went outside. Kakashi then went in front of everyone and looked over the scroll.

"All of you are to go and prepare for a mission that will last at least a week. We will be meeting tomorrow morning, at the northern gate," Kakashi gave out orders and slowly walked to the village to make his own preparations.

Once Kakashi left, Sakura started jumping up and down in place. "Finally, the time has come. What do you think, Saori?"

Saori was also slightly excited, but she tried to hide it. "Well, they are just a bunch of bandits, so there is nothing special here. We shouldn't have too much trouble with this."

"That so? Truth be told, I'm getting nervous," Sakura scratched the back of her head as the two started walking to the village while chatting.

From the beginning, the two didn't even glance at Naruto.

...

"What do you think?" Hiruzen's question came.

"It really is difficult," Kakashi responded as the two observed the dispersing team 7.

Hiruzen only released a sigh and looked down.

"Well, we can't really blame him, can we? The village hasn't really been acting friendly towards him all these years," Kakashi said as he observed Naruto.

Hiruzen then turned to Kakashi. "What about his teammates?"

Kakashi shook his head. "Naruto spent a lot of effort to keep his distance and the two don't really seem interest in him either. He has very effectively become a stranger. The relationship is that as long as Konoha keeps providing, then he will stay. The moment we try to tie him down or cut him off, I am afraid that he will leave the very same night."

Hiruzen then looked back at Naruto. "Let's just try fix our mistakes as fast as possible. Otherwise, we may dearly regret it once the time comes."

Kakashi nodded and the two then went back to their own jobs.

Next morning, team 7 gathered at the gates and set out towards their mission. The area they were heading towards was a mountain range. Due to the plenty natural resources, that area housed the biggest trading city in all of Land of Fire - Takashima.

The trip itself only took 2 days and was rather boring. Nothing but woods, rocks and a few wild animals.

Eventually, the team had finally arrived at Takashima.

By the time the four had arrived, it was already evening. As they walked around the city, they saw countless tall buildings, markets, people running around, and shopkeepers promoting their goods.

Up above the streets, many lamps were lit, illuminating the bustling city in a soothing orange light. Even though it was evening, the city was full of energy and it gave off a feeling as if it will only get livelier.

The team then finally arrived at the city lord's mansion and requested an audience. The city lord was an old, fat person. His fingers had several expensive rings on them, he also wore a robe made of high quality materials. This person had very obviously been enjoying his life in this city.

"So you are the shinobi that Konoha sent?" The city lord looked over the team.

Kakashi was standing in the front and he respectfully nodded. "That's right, city lord."

The city lord reclined in his seat and took a sip of wine. "Alright, Takeshi, bring the documents to these shinobi."

At his order, a middle aged, skinny man ran into the room. This man had short brown hair, sunken eyes and a below-average face. Takeshi quickly ran in with a scroll in his hands and gave it to Kakashi.

"This scroll holds all the information we have about the bandits currently. It is slightly outdated, so keep that in mind," The city lord didn't put on any airs, making it seem as if he was conducting a business deal here.

Kakashi nodded his head. "Alright, will that be all, city lord? If so, we will head back and start making preparations."

The city lord waved his hand. "That is all. Get rid of them before our business suffers even more."

Team 7 bowed and left the mansion, out into the lively streets. Under Kakashi's lead, the team found an inn to spend the night and rented two rooms; one for Kakashi and Naruto while the other was for Sakura and Saori.

After settling down, everyone gathered in the men's room, where Kakashi had set down a map and the scroll on the table.

"Alright, here is what we know so far: the bandits have a total of 50 people, 4 of them genin level rogue ninja. Their main base is deeper in the mountains and is heavily protected. Our job is to get rid of these bandits so that the business here is no longer disturbed," Kakashi gave a basic introduction to their situation.

Slam!

Sakura slammed her hands on the table and stood up, a nervous expression on her face, "F-Fifty bandits? Sensei, that is too much!"

Kakashi raised his head from the map and looked at the team. Sakura was visibly frightened, Saori hid her emotions but you could still see a trace of caution, while Naruto didn't reveal even an iota of his emotions.

His lone eye curling into his smile, Kakashi comforted the genin, "Well, calm down. This situation only looks scary on the outside, but it actually isn't. To begin with, bandits are pack animals. They are only gathered together for the sake of profit and safety. As soon as they see that things are turning sour, these guys will only think about self-preservation and scatter quickly.

"You should also keep in mind that bandits are normal people with no training. Do you think that they can match you, who can spit out fireballs and throw a dozen shuriken in a second? A single one of you should be able to take on multiple bandits without breaking a sweat."

Hearing Kakashi's words, Sakura visibly calmed down as she sat down again. "B-but still... 50 bandits and 4 of them are ninja."

Kakashi nodded his head. "That's right. As Hokage-sama said, this mission will be difficult, but we can still handle it. Now then, you guys must be tired after the journey so we will stop here. Tomorrow we will head to the base and verify the information before making a detailed attack plan."

Sakura's eyes started shinning. "Rest?" She then turned to Saori. "Saori! Hot spring!" Sakura grabbed Saori and dragged her towards the hot spring on the ground floor.

Kakashi looked at Naruto, who was also slowly making his way there. "Hmm... Alright, perhaps I should tag along."

The hot spring wasn't very large, and there were several people already there. This wasn't a mixed hot spring, so the male and female sides were separated by a wall.

Once Kakashi walked inside, he saw Naruto relaxing by the edge of the hot spring. His eyes closed, his long, unruly hair draped over his shoulders. Kakashi made his way towards Naruto and sat down beside him.

"Ahh... I don't remember the last time I was at a hot spring," Kakashi let out a satisfied sigh.

Naruto didn't say anything as he continued resting and relaxing in the water. Kakashi then opened one eye and glanced at Naruto. His eye then traveled down Naruto's toned arms and saw his hands.

Usually, Naruto's hands would be wrapped in bandages, so this was the first time Kakashi saw his bare hands. His hands were very rough and scarred, giving one the feeling of pain once he imagined the story behinds those scars.

That was actually because of Naruto's sharingan. Once he gained it, Naruto spent a lot of time copying the techniques of older shinobi.

However, he forgot to take into account that there is a requirement to execute those techniques: his body must be strong enough, or he must have the necessary knowledge.

At the time, Naruto was a young boy and he tried executing the techniques of chunin or jounin level ninja, which resulted in him injuring himself many times.

Kakashi sighed as he looked at the scarred hands. His eye then traveled up and was met with a red sharingan.

"I don't need your pity, sensei. Also, you seem to be trying to get close to me. Is it so that I would get some good memories in this village and let go of the past? I will tell you now that it's not working," Naruto's sharingan looked over Kakashi before it travelled up and observed the sky.

Nowadays, Naruto would usually leave his sharingan activated. His chakra reserves were massive because he had the Uzumaki blood flowing in his veins. Additionally, he was saturated with Kyuubi's chakra ever since he was an infant and he also actively trained his chakra, which resulted in him having hokage level reserves despite being so young.

Naruto simply saw no point in deactivating the sharingan, considering he didn't really feel the strain of keeping it active. This also helped him read the movements of those around him, reducing the chances of someone doing a sneak attack on him.

Kakashi shook his head. "I'm not really trying to do any of that. It is simply a sensei trying to get to know his student. Is it wrong?"

Naruto shrugged his shoulders before sitting upright and looking at Kakashi. "Well, let's forget this topic then. How about we talk about the real purpose of the mission? Don't you think you should explain that, sensei?"

Kakashi's eyebrows rose. "Real mission? There is nothing of the sort here. This is a very average bandit subjugation mission."

Naruto's eyes became slightly colder. "It feels like I am repeating these words a lot nowadays. However, I still have to ask, do you think I am stupid? If a bandit stronghold appeared near the greatest trading city in the Land of Fire, wouldn't those greedy merchants hire the Hokage himself to destroy the bandits? And yet, why is it that they hired a genin team?"

Kakashi could only a helpless sigh. "Why can't you be slightly more naive?"

Naruto scoffed as he reclined back on the edge of the hot spring, not saying anything else.

Kakashi, not wanting Naruto to go around searching for answers by himself, decided to explain, "Well, to begin with, why do you think these merchants let the bandits settle down in the first place?"

Hearing Kakashi's question, Naruto thought it over, but couldn't come to any logical conclusion.

"The answer is that those bandits are being paid by the merchants to attack their rivals. You could say that the bandits are those who do the dirty work on behalf of those merchants," Kakashi eventually decided to answer.

Naruto's brows furrowed. "Why? Aren't bandits and merchants like oil and water? Even if that is true, why would the merchants suddenly decide to get rid of them?"

Kakahi shrugged this time, "Don't know. Maybe they became a dangerous existence to the merchants, maybe they offended someone they shouldn't have... In any case, it's best to simply do your job in cases like these. If you find out some dirty secret by accident, you may have a powerful merchant coming after your life."

Naruto nodded his head and then continued relaxing, his curiosity sated.

Naruto didn't stay in the hot spring for long. After soaking in it for a while, he got up, wrapped a towel around his hips and went towards the exit.

"Leaving already?" Kakashi asked.

"I intend to look around the city for a bit," Naruto said as he left the hot spring.

Kakashi only waved his hand. "Sure, just be careful..." He then submerged himself more and relaxed.

After returning to his room, Naruto dressed himself up in his usual attire and checked his gear.

"Kunai, check. Shuriken, check... Everything else, check," Naruto strapped his holster to his leg, hid his headband, pulled up his face mask, pulled down his hood and jumped out of the window.

His chakra flaring, Naruto dashed at full speed towards the exit of the city, not sparing even a glance to anything else.

He ran out of the city gates, checked his surroundings and then dashed into the dark forest.

Because it was nighttime, nobody saw Naruto dash through the woods. Not even once he appeared some distance from the bandit stronghold.

"So this is it, huh," Naruto checked the map and was certain that this was the stronghold.

What Naruto saw before him was a giant stronghold filled with buildings. Braziers were lit, drunk bandits were walking around, there was a massive bonfire in the middle and the bandits were partying.

To the side, Naruto saw some chained up girls walking around the camp, delivering food to the bandits.

"Those are the girls these guys stole from the villages, huh... These guys are definitely backed by the merchants, otherwise, there is no way they could have such a comfortable life. And yet, why is that they were betrayed?" Naruto wondered in his head and decided to sneak in closer.

Naruto had naturally enormous chakra reserves, but it all disappeared as if there was nothing there. He quietly sneaked up to the camp and found a lone bandit at the edge of the camp.

"Yo..."

The bandit turned around after he heard the voice and saw a hooded figure.

"Who are you? I don't remember ya..." The bandit slurred as he tried to place a name to a face.

Naruto lifted his head and the red sharingan shone from beneath the hood. The bandit looked at the spining sharingan, mesmerized. His eyes grew dull, his posture slumped, and drool went down his chin.

"Are you guys backed by the merchants?" Naruto asked.

The bandit nodded in response.

"Why?" Came the next question

"There are countless merchants fighting for business here. They pay us to deal with each other," The bandit dumbly responded.

Naruto placed a hand to his chin. "Is that so?" Naruto then looked over the bandits who were partying happily. "You guys... Do you know that the merchants betrayed you and hired ninja?"

There was a moment of silence.

The bandit grinned as he answered, "Of course. Those stupid ninja were hired for the sake of appearances. After all, wouldn't it be suspicious if the merchants did nothing about us bandits?"

Naruto's mood fell once he heard the bandit's words. "So the shinobi are sacrificial pawns?" He asked, anger in his voice.

The bandit nodded as he laughed, "We have set a trap for those shinobi. Once they come, our own shinobi will deal with them."

Naruto grabbed the bandit by the throat, his eyes spitting fire. "What is the plan?"

The bandit shook his head dumbly. "I don't know."

"Who does?!" Naruto asked.

"Our boss and our own ninja, most likely."

Naruto's grip tightened. "Last question: whose idea is this?"

The bandit shook his head again, saying, "No idea."

Naruto's grip tightened and the bandit started choking, his face turning blue.

"You are useless then," Naruto said as a blue sheen appeared on his arm.

The bandit's face changed colours as he was choking. Saliva went down his lips and he looked like he was about to kick the bucket any second.

"Yo, Takumi, you done pissin?"

Naruto stopped once he heard a voice nearby. He clenched his teeth and threw the bandit away without killing him.

"Soon enough," He said as he backed off into the shadows. A second later, not a single trace of him remained.

Meanwhile, the bandit's eyes cleared up and he sat up on the ground. He touched his still hurting neck.

"Jeez, just how drunk was I and who the hell did I fight with?" The bandit asked as he looked around. Eventually, he stood up and went back to rejoin the party.

Naruto's red eyes then spent hours observing the camp. He verified all the information that they had been given and noticed nothing out of the ordinary.

"If this is a trap, how are they going to do it? The boss is always around his men so I can't interrogate him. And those ninjas are too big of a risk. If can't pull it off perfectly, I will simply be alarming everyone," Naruto sighed.

Eventually, he decided that it was enough for the day. The sun was already rising and it was becoming too dangerous. Without any hesitation, Naruto turned around and left the area, returning to his inn.

"I see, so this is all a trap," Kakashi said as he put a hand to his chin.

Naruto had returned to the inn and told Kakashi about what he found out. This mission was becoming dangerous and Naruto wasn't stupid enough to think that his lone inexperienced self could solve the mystery.

"Well, if I were to make a guess... Perhaps they intend to put some pressure on Konoha?" Kakashi mused out loud.

Naruto raised one eyebrow. "Why would they put pressure on Konoha? We are the ones protecting them."

Kakashi sighed as he sat down. "It's never so easy, Naruto. Konoha is receiving funding from the Daimyo, which makes it that his voice carries some weight in Konoha. Other merchants also want privileges like that, because it would allow them to expand their influence."

Naruto also sat down across from Kakashi. "Then how are they going to do it? I can't see how killing us would allow them to gain some influence there."

"If we fail, then the merchants can file complaints that all the money spent on nurturing shinobi is being wasted, producing useless shinobi. If they push it hard enough, they can request the Daimyo to force some changes in the village," Kakashi explained.

Naruto's eyes widened as he finally understood.

Many people would think that shinobi are independent, but that is not so. Shinobi exist to protect and help the people. Without the people, shinobi were completely useless. That's why, if they don't gain any funding from the Daimyo, Konoha would fall into dire times.

"I see, so by having us fail, they will get to keep their 'pets' as well as a chance to gain some influence in Konoha," Naruto summarized.

Kakashi nodded his head as the room fell into a heavy silence.

...

"Well, lets put that problem aside. Why were you in the stronghold to begin with, Naruto? I don't remember giving you permission to investigate," Kakashi said as he narrowed his eyes.

"I saved us a day of work and revealed their plots, so what does it matter," Naruto said.

Kakashi's eye narrowed further. "That is not the problem here, Naruto. We are a team and I am your sensei. You lied to me, acted without permission, and you would have put the entire mission in danger if you had failed."

Naruto scofffed, "But I didn't. I went out, verified the information we were given and uncovered their plot. As for the mission, well, isn't it always in danger of failing?"

Kakashi shook his head. "You may not like it, but we are a team, Naruto. The purpose of tomorrow was for me to teach you guys about scouting and information gathering."

A mocking smile adorned Naruto's face. "Information gathering? Team? Are you talking about the useless cherry blossom or the stuck up princess? Which of them could have done the job better than me? If we had followed your plan, we would have walked straight into their ambush completely unaware. In this case, me acting alone had saved this entire mission and a lot of trouble for Konoha, and I didn't need either of them."

Kakashi released a helpless sigh. "In this case, you acting alone did help the mission. However, we are a team for a reason, Naruto. We are here to watch eatch other's backs... No, it won't make a difference no mater how much I talk right now, right? In any case, you have done enough for today. You should get some rest."

Kakashi then took out an empty scroll and a brush. He spent several minutes writing down something and then he walked out of the room with the scroll. Naruto also didn't say anything else. He was tired after spending a whole night investigating, so he undressed and went to sleep.

The next few days are going to be harsh, and he would need all the sleep he could get.

 **Author's Notes:**

 **Hello, everyone!**

 **Sorry it took a while :P**

 **Moving from flat to flat took several days, then I also spent some time visiting my family as well as other Irl stuff (And a small bit of laziness as well)**

 **In any case, I am back! Hooray!**

 **I know you guys have probably been cursing me in your heads, as well as writing poems to honour my death (you can scrap those btw), but you can put all that aside for now.**

 **I am now trying to get back into my rhythm and continue writing, but the past few days have been exhausting so it's difficult.**

 **I also have other Irl stuff left, so I don't have as much time, but I promised myself that I would spend at least some time of a day to sit down and write some chapters.**

 **In any case, its good to be back, and you guys have something to look forward to now. I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and if you did then drop a review! Flame me, bomb me, nuke me – do whatever you want!**

 **See you guys in the next chapter! Toodles!**


	8. Chapter 7:Debut of Team 7: A Step Behind

Hours went by as Naruto was sleeping inside the inn. The previous night, he had spent all night observing the bandit base, so he was exhausted and slept the entire day. Only towards the evening was Naruto woken up by Kakashi.

Naruto quickly dressed up and soon after the girls also arrived inside the room.

"Alright, everyone is already aware of the situation, right?" Kakashi asked as he looked over the genin.

"So some merchant is setting a trap for us? Do we quit this mission, sensei?" Sakura asked with a fearful expression.

Kakashi had also explained the situation to the girls, so they also knew that this was a trap.

However, much to Sakura's disappointment, Kakashi shook his head. "No, we will continue. We have no physical evidence that this is a trap, so we don't have a good excuse to quit. In fact, us quitting now will only bring more problems to Konoha."

"I hope you aren't suggesting that we walk into the trap, sensei," Saori said.

Kakashi's lone eye turned into a crescent shape, signifying his smile. "Of course not. All of you are my students, so there is no way I would allow anything to happen to you. We just have to adjust our plan and we will continue. The city lord was the one speaking on the behalf of the merchants, so I bet that he knows all the answers. We can start there."

A smile appeared on Sakura's face. "That's right, with our team, there is no way we can fail this. Though its a good thing that sensei found out about their plans. If you hadn't, then who knows what would have happened..."

Naruto's eyebrows rose, just so slightly, as he looked at Sakura.

"Kakashi found out?" Naruto thought inside his head.

He then turned to Kakashi who didn't seem to be paying any attention to him.

"Oh... Did he take the credit because he was afraid that tensions would start rising if these two found out that I moved alone?" Realization came to Naruto.

"In any case, you guys don't have to worry too much. Even if this is a trap, we still have the advantage of knowing about it. For the time being, Sakura and Saori should stay here, while me and Naruto will head to the city lord's mansion to ask some questions, "Kakashi stood up as he gave out his orders.

Saori's face turned into a frown. "Why are we staying here, while Naruto is heading out?" She asked.

Kakashi smiled again. "Well, someone has to protect the inn so that ninja wouldn't sneak in here, right? Meanwhile, if I were to investigate everything alone, it may raise some suspicions."

Saori closed her mouth as she heard the reason. There was some reluctance, but she still nodded. She knew first-hand how good Naruto was at "asking questions".

With the orders given out, the team went about their tasks. Saori and Sakura were staying at the inn, making sure no shinobi try to sneak in, while Naruto and Kakashi walked outside of the inn.

Kakashi then turned to Naruto. "Alright, Naruto. Given the situation, I will allow you some free reign. I want you to find the city lord's aide, Takeshi, and get some answers out of him with your sharingan," Kakashi said as he didn't even hide the fact that he was aware of some of Naruto's skills.

Naruto also turned to Kakashi. "Didn't you say something about being a team? Why leave those two behind? Also, what about you?" Naruto's asked.

Kakashi could only release a helpless sigh. "Well... Truth be told, Sakura isn't skilled enough to fight against a shinobi if they were to sneak inside the inn. And she isn't the investigative type, so we can only leave her in the inn with Saori as back up. On the other hand, I will be heading out on my own to do some investigations."

Kakashi's lone eye narrowed. "Our mission's success depends heavily upon your results. Can I count you?"

Naruto didn't say anything in response. He only closed his eyes, and once they were opened again, a red sharingan was glaring at Kakashi.

Kakashi nodded his head and the two shinobi went towards their own objectives.

It only took several minutes for Naruto to reach the city lord's mansion. Just like previously, it was still stupidly lavish and there were a lot of people here. Naruto looked around the mansion, trying to find a good entry point into the mansion.

After 10 minutes of investigation, Naruto had finally found an empty room on the second floor and used it to silently enter the mansion. Silently, Naruto walked around the mansion, avoiding all the servants and merchants, while also trying to find the city lord's aide.

After some careful sneaking around, he finally found the man in a back room of the mansion.

Takeshi had average looks, was skinny, and had sunken eyes, which made it seem like he was a man of average abilities. This man was now sitting behind a desk, next to him several piles of paperwork that he was diligently working through.

Naruto's eyes narrowed as he observed the man. In contrast to his below-average appearance, his quick work displayed his great talent.

"I had underestimated this guy. There is no way that the city lord's closest aide would be an average man, I suppose," Naruto thought inside.

Naruto then carefully used his chakra to sense his surroundings for any other people. Once he confirmed that there was nobody in their immediate surroundings, Naruto stopped hiding and revealed his presence.

Takeshi's pen immediately stopped as Naruto appeared. However, what surprised Naruto was that the man didn't even seem fazed. He was sitting there with an indifferent look on his face. After looking over Naruto, he went back to his work.

Naruto's eyebrows rose as he didn't expect to be blatantly ignored.

"Ignoring a shinobi who snuck inside your room?" Naruto couldn't help but ask.

"If you had wanted me dead, I would already be dead," Takeshi said as his pen didn't stop even for a second.

Naruto reassessed this man again.

"So you're not afraid of dying?"Naruto asked again as he started applying some pressure.

This time, Takeshi's pen stopped moving. "That would be the preferable option, in my opinion. Trust me, it is a nightmare to work for this man. Anyways, what do you want, Konoha shinobi?"

Hearing Takeshi identify him without difficulty, Naruto raised his guard. Naruto couldn't understand how this man had identified him as he was standing in the shadows, completely hidden.

"That is because I have been wanting to meet you. Though I was expecting the meeting to take place in a few more days. In any case, if you want to understand your situation better, then it is obviously better to confront the city lord's aide first, so your actions are still within my calculations, " Takeshi explained as if he had seen through Naruto.

"He had predicted that we would visit him?" Naruto's eyes grew wide as he thought about it.

Once Naruto understood that he was lying in Takeshi's palm, he started feeling very insecure and annoyed. However, he suppressed his feelings as he observed the man.

Takeshi's look was that of a man who was completely certain of his deduction. Realizing that he couldn't fool Takeshi, Naruto could only release a sigh and step out of the shadows.

"It seems that beneath those looks of yours lies a dangerous man," Naruto said as he carefully observed Takeshi.

However, Takeshi simply put his elbows on the table and placed his head on his hands.

"Don't worry, I am not your enemy. In fact, I was intending on helping you uncover the plot... Though it seems you did it before I could make my move," Takeshi said with a sigh.

Naruto quirked his eyebrows. "Why are you opposing the merchants? Aren't you one of them?"

Takeshi scoffed as he answered, "I was one of them, would be the correct way to say it. In the past, I had my own business in the city, but these merchants had unified against me and put me out of business. With a massive debt on my shoulders, I can only work for the city lord now. And trust me, he is a very unpleasant man. Does this answer your question?"

Naruto nodded his head.

Takeshi then leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. "Good. Anyways, we don't have much time because the city lord has shinobi patrolling the area, so here is the deal.

"These guys have two plans against you: one is to sneak inside your inn and poison your food in order to capture you. The other plan relies on a shinobi that the merchants had secretly hired. Truth be told, even I don't know this guy's true identity as the merchants are keeping him deep in the shadows. However, from what I did find out, he is a powerful man and is considered their trump card. I believe that this man will appear once you attack the bandit camp. Currently, I believe that your best bet to defend against their plan 1, and then attack before they can use their plan 2."

Hearing Takeshi's words, Naruto took it with a grain of salt. After all, there was no way that Naruto could straight up believe Takeshi's words.

But still, if what Takeshi had said is the truth, then Naruto had to agree with Takeshi. They could only defend against plan 1, because the assailants would deny all connections to the merchants. On the other hand, if they were to make sufficient preparations against plan 2, then team 7 could complete their mission and leave this place unharmed.

But before Naruto could think further, Takeshi interrupted him.

"Though there is something you could actually do for me, you know. If you agree, then we will both gain a lot from it," Takeshi said.

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Why would I do anything for you?"

"Because we will both gain benefits which speaks a lot more than empty words, no? And if you complete this, then we can take down these merchants, thus eliminating the threat to Konoha," Takeshi explained.

Seeing that Naruto was hooked on his bait, Takeshi smiled.

"My plan is to expose the merchants. Because meeting up between merchants and bandits is a sure-fire way to lose all reputation, merchants tend to use pigeon messengers to communicate with the bandits. I firmly believe that the bandits are still holding on to those messages, so they could use them as shields in case those merchants were to try to get rid of them. If you can get those messages, we can expose these merchants and have them locked away. And if you let me get this glory, I can establish myself in this city. With me as a friend, I can help keep the merchants off of Konoha's back and you would have gained a powerful friend. I believe it's worth it, no?" Takeshi smiled confidently as he looked at Naruto.

Takeshi's words were swirling inside his head as Naruto thought it over. It was just as Takeshi had said: benefits spoke louder than words.

It's just that...

"You are telling me that you want to steal all of their wealth, which is a clear sign of big ambition. In that case, how do I know that your ambitions don't involve Konoha?" Naruto's eyes narrowed.

Takeshi chuckled in response. "Its precisely because I'm smart that my ambitions don't involve Konoha. The Daimyo is enjoying the benefits of being the only person having influence over Konoha. The moment I try get a piece of the pie, I will immediately be targeted by Konoha's shinobi and the Daimyo. The idea is tempting, but I value my life more."

Naruto stood in silence as he observed Takeshi. The man also didn't say anything anymore. He simply let Naruto digest the information and come to a decision.

Clack, clack...

The two suddenly heard footsteps coming towards the room. Takeshi then turned to Naruto.

"I think you should leave now. Those messages are most likely somewhere in the bandit leader's room. If you agree to my plan, then get those messages and deliver them to me. I will deal with the rest," Takeshi said as he went back to his own work, ignoring Naruto.

Naruto still wanted to ask some questions, but he knew that their time was over.

Creak

The door to the room opened and a maid walked inside.

"Takeshi-sama, I have brought some tea and snacks," The maid said as she placed a tray near Takeshi.

Takeshi smiled response. "Thank you," He said as he took a sip of the tea and then went back to his own work.

From the beginning, the maid had never noticed that another person had been here just a few second ago.

Whoosh

Naruto appeared on a roof of a building. He was facing the direction of the mansion, Takeshi's offer still on his mind.

A deep frown formed on Naruto's face.

Naruto had went to the mansion with every intention of using his sharingan to gain information, but the whole conversation was completely controlled by Takeshi. Before Naruto had noticed, Takeshi had said his piece and driven him out without giving Naruto a chance to ask questions.

And yet, Naruto couldn't ignore this deal because it is a deal beneficial to both parties.

In other words...

"No choice but to do it," Naruto sighed.

After Naruto decided on acting, his mind started forming plans inside his head.

"The only concern is that hidden shinobi. If he was an existence hidden by all the merchants, that means he should be very dangerous, but we don't even have a clue of his identity," Naruto clicked his tongue in frustration.

"Well, standing here won't give me any answers. I'll go deal with the poisoning first," Naruto said as he turned around and made his way to the inn.

It didn't take Naruto long to return to the inn. However, what Naruto found was that the inn was surrounded by many people and that there was a hole on the roof.

Alarms rang inside his head and Naruto ran to his room. Quickly jumping in through the window, Naruto was surprised to find an unconscious Sakura, and a Saori who was bandaging her wounds.

Saori had also sensed a presence, and she quickly turned to the window. Once she saw that it was Naruto, she showed an unpleasant expression but still visibly relaxed.

"What happened?" Naruto already knew that the enemy shinobi had acted but still asked.

"Enemy attack," Came Saori's neutral response.

"What about her?" Naruto looked at Sakura.

"Knockout drugs," Saori tried to keep her voice calm, but you could still hear the exhaustion and anger in her voice.

"And where are the enemy shinobi?" Naruto looked around his room. There were traces of battle, but no enemy shinobi.

This time, the response didn't come, which caused Naruto to raise an eyebrow. He stopped looking around and turned his head to Saori, only to find her face slightly paler than before.

"What is it?" Naruto asked.

"They... Are dead," Saori eventually answered.

Silence.

Saori was surprised that no sarcastic comments came from Naruto, so she looked up and saw him look at her with a complicated gaze.

"Fine... You can rest now. I will keep watch until sensei arrives," Naruto said as he walked to the table and sat down.

Saori looked him up and down with a suspicious look. In her mind, Naruto was cold and had a habit of sarcastically making fun of people. But now he was strangely considerate and quiet, which greatly confused her.

Eventually, Saori still nodded her head. Say what you want, but she was still a young girl. She wasn't capable of killing people in cold blood, so she was mentally exhausted.

Saori finished with her bandages, took Sakura, and went to get some sleep. It took less than a minute for deep, rhythmic breathing to come from her, signifying that Saori fell into a deep sleep.

After some time, Naruto glanced back at the two sleeping girls.

A deep frown formed on his face.

"I was late..." Naruto's voice was laced with anger.

Six years.

Naruto had spent six years recklessly training, pushing past his limits. He had formed a lot of confidence in himself from improving so much. However, his confidence had received a huge blow in these last few days, because he was being helplessly played around with by a bunch of merchants.

Whether it's their scheming against Konoha, Takeshi playing around with Naruto, or being too late for the sneak attack; Naruto was always a few steps behind. This caused anger to build up within Naruto, yet have no one to vent it on.

As he thought about it, this was the only time that Naruto had been thankful for having teammates. Saori had unknowingly defended against their plan 1, which was like a slap to their faces, relieving some of Naruto's irritation.

As he observed the exhausted and injured Saori, some of Naruto's anger died down.

"Teammates, huh..." Naruto's brows were pulled together as thoughts flashed inside his head.

Eventually, he took his eyes off of Saori and turned to the room entrance.

"Fine! If you want to play rough, then let's do it," Resolve flashed in Naruto's mind as he was already forming a death sentence on the bandits.

Come tomorrow, these bandits will understand what happens when you mess with Naruto Uzumaki.

 **Author's Notes:**

 **Hello, my dear readers!**

 **Here is another chapter for you, and I hope you enjoyed it. I still have some business IRL, so I don't have as much time to write as I would like, and I also have to leave some time to review the chapters, in order for it to not look like it was written by an infant.**

 **However, I am slowly getting back into my rhythm, which I guess is something to celebrate?**

 **Anyways, thank you for reading, and please drop a review with your opinion in it. Flames, suggestions and everything else is always appreciated!**

 **I hope to see you guys in the next chapter. Toodles!**


	9. Chapter 8: Debut of Team 7: The Climax

Back in the mountains, the bandits were busy making their preparations. Weapons were being distributed, all the important stuff was hidden etc.

Looking from above, it felt like observing an ant nest that was bustling with activity.

"Sensei, is it really alright to attack it now?" Sakura's uncertain voice came from the side.

"Of course it is. We won't get a better opening than this," Naruto's cold voice came.

Team 7 all collectively turned to Naruto, who was giving the bandit base a cold glare. After the poisoning attempt yesterday, Naruto had been busy making preparations the whole day, preparing to attack the bandit base.

Now that it was evening, the bandits were relaxing after running around the whole day.

Kakashi cleared his throat. "Well, it's just as Naruto had said. The bandits think we are busy investigating who attacked us, so right now is a perfect opportunity to attack."

Kakashi then turned to all of team 7. "For this attack, there are several objectives."

Kakashi then looked at Sakura, "Sakura, your job will be to observe the enemy shinobi, because I doubt that those guys will show up at the beginning of the fight. Once they make a move, your job is to inform us."

Kakashi then turned to Saori, "Saori, your job is to find and secure the prisoners. These bandits will probably try to use them as hostages to make us surrender. Your job is to not let any bandits get close to the prisoners."

Finally, Kakashi turned to Naruto, "Naruto, your job is to raise some noise and to deal with as many bandits as you can. Once you distract them, I will personally go after their leader."

"What about their escape route? Shouldn't we cover that?" Saori asked.

Kakashi shook his head. "If those bandits find out that there is no escape, they will be like cornered animals. You guys aren't used to fighting such battles, so let's take a more simple approach in this mission."

"Any questions?" Kakashi asked.

"What will we do about the enemy shinobi?" This time, Sakura asked.

"Avoid confrontation. These guys are being hired for money, so if we take down the enemy operations, these shinobi will have no reason to stay here," Kakashi explained.

Seeing that there were no further questions, the team started walking to their own positions.

Naruto was walking leisurely towards the front of the bandit camp. His job was the most simple one – beating up bandits.

Once Naruto was close enough to the gates, he stood behind a tree and listened. And soon enough, Naruto heard a bird chirping in the distance.

"That's the signal," Naruto's face became cold and indifferent. Now was the time for him to vent his anger at the bandits.

"None of them will have an easy time," Naruto mumbled as he walked out from behind the tree and towards the bandit camp.

"Who is there?" One of the guarding bandit's yelled.

In response, Naruto exploded with chakra and charged forward. Two bandits ran out of their positions and prepared to intercept Naruto. However, it was like an ant trying to stop a mad bull.

Naruto's body was covered in chakra, and as soon as he was near the bandits, he punched forward. Naruto's strength overwhelmed the bandit's and the bandit flew back like a kite with its strings cut.

"What the hell? How can a kid have so much strength?" The second bandit stood in place, dumbstruck.

Naruto then spun on his heel and unleashed a vicious kick at the second dumbstruck bandit. The bandit's reaction was too late and Naruto's foot dug into the bandit's stomach, also sending him flying.

Now that the way was clear, Naruto straightened his posture and leisurely walked inside the camp under the astonished gaze of dozens of bandits.

"A kid?" One of the bandits asked incrediously.

"Don't let your guard down! Look at his arm, there is a shinobi headband!" All of the bandits immediately became serious once they noticed the Konoha headband on Naruto's left bicep.

"Should be enough," Naruto mumbled.

Naruto took out a single kunai. He then got into a throwing posture and covered his arm with chakra. His arm then moved as fast as lightning, and the single kunai flew towards the bandits.

However, Naruto wasn't done yet. His hands quickly went through some hand seals as he observed the single kunai.

 **Kunai Shadow Clone**

With a popping sound, the single kunai turned into dozens and iron rain fell on the bandits who were completely unprepared for the strange jutsu. A second later, yells of pain came from the direction of the bandits as they were all stabbed by the kunai.

The bandits towards the back had survived because only the bandits at the front had suffered from the jutsu. The trade-off was that although not a lot of bandits were killed, the ones who were caught up in the jutsu were definitely dead.

The bandits stared at their dead comrades in mute silence. However, Naruto wasn't willing to wait for them. His sharingan manifested, his chakra exploded around him, and Naruto lunged at the dozens of bandits.

Bam!

A fist smashed into the face of one bandit, sending him flying into the air. Naruto then jumped into the air and kicked out in both directions, landing two kicks on the nearby bandits.

Seeing Naruto lunge into the middle of their numbers, the bandits woke up.

"Get the brat!"

"Raaagh!"

The bandits yelled as they all lunged at the lone Naruto.

Somewhere else, Kakashi was silently observing Naruto, making sure that he had no problems before proceeding with his own mission.

"A rather straightforward approach to his mission. Oh well, I suppose it's just his style," Kakashi mumbled and made his way towards the bandit leader's building.

As a jounin, it took him less than a minute to appear there. As the bandits were focusing Naruto, only a few bandits remained to guard the boss. However, that was nowhere near enough to stop Kakashi.

Like lightning, Kakashi charged through the bandits, knocking them out in less than a second. He then leisurely opened the door and walked inside.

"Hello, anybody home?" Kakashi didn't even bother hiding his presence. His lone eye looked over the the spacious room.

"Yes, yes, I am here, Kakashi Hatake," Kakashi was slightly surprised to be identified by a simple bandit.

His eye scanned the room and landed on a figure who was calmly doing some paperwork behind a desk.

The figure didn't seem disturbed at all by what was going on outside, which made Kakashi raise his guard immediately.

The figure then raised its head and looked at Kakashi.

"It has been a while since we last saw each other, Kakashi," The figure revealed a smile.

Kakashi immediately realized who this person was and it caused him to break out in cold sweat.

"Shin…" Kakashi said quietly.

Short black hair, an average face that had held a long scar on it's left cheek, normal clothes. If you were to place this man in a group of people, he would blend in with no difficulties. He seemed like nothing more than a friendly neighbour.

However, Kakashi knew better.

Shin, also known as Vicious Snake. He was one of the most notorious bandit lords throughout all the countries.

What made this man fearsome was not his strength but his intellect. In the past, this man had engaged in a battle of wits against Konoha's current lead strategist, Shikaku Nara. The result was that Shikaku had forced Shin to run away, but that was only because Shikaku had Konoha's shinobi forces at his command.

Meanwhile, Shin had ran away with minimal casualties and had even given Shikaku a lot of trouble. Throughout all the countries, this man is considered to be one of the best strategists out there.

Chakra flared around Kakashi and he immediately charged at Shin. No words were needed.

However, a shadow leapt out of the shadows and blocked Kakashi. Once the figure came into light, a headband with a horizontal slash in it came into view.

Two chains shot out from behind the shinobi, forcing Kakashi away. Once he landed further back, Kakashi got a proper look at the rogue shinobi.

'Warden, was it?" Kakashi asked.

The enemy shinobi was clad in a worn out traveler's cloak and a white mask hid his face. This man was also an infamous A-rank shinobi.

"Kuku, you came here, as expected. Truly, you shinobi are so arrogant," Shin said as he stood up from his chair.

He then went beside the rogue shinobi, Warden.

"Warden, I will leave Kakashi to you," leaving those words behind, Shin then turned around and made his way outside through a back entrance.

"Wait, Shin! Just what are you planning here?" Kakashi yelled.

"Haha, what schemer would reveal all his plans before his foe? However, let me ask you this: should you really be worrying about me right now?" Shin threw a smile at Kakashi before turning around and walking outside.

Kakashi's eyes widened.

"The genin... Oh no," Kakashi then turned around and was about to dash outside, but his way was blocked by Warden.

"Kakashi Hatake, ignoring you foe is considered a foolish move in shinobi culture. If you want to help your students, then you will have to go through me!" Warden roared and dozens of chains shot out from beneath the cloak.

Kakashi quickly jumped back, avoiding the chains. A kunai appeared in his hand as he deflected the last chain.

"Please be alright, everyone," Kakaashi mumbled and then charged at Warden.

While Naruto and Kakashi were engaged in battle, Sakura was at the back of the bandit outpost, observing a hidden house.

"Huuu… I hope everyone is okay," Sakura mumbled as she felt her stomach start aching. Everyone said that they could do it, but Sakura had been having a bad feeling all this morning. She felt as if something was definitely going to go wrong.

"Haaahh... Must be imagination. That's right, we are the strongest genin team, so there is no way we can't deal with a few bandits," Sakura tried to encourage herself, but still ended up downcast.

As Sakura was observing the small hideout, she heard the leaves rustle behind her. Sakura quickly took out a kunai and spun around.

"Well, well, what do we have here, hmmm?" A voice came from in front of her.

As Sakura observed him, a headband with a horizontal slash in it came into view.

"Rogue shinobi… How?" Fear crept into Sakura's heart.

Among genin, her abilities were nothing to brag about. However, she wasn't so useless that an enemy shinobi could sneak out of the house and then get behind her.

Realization came to Sakura.

"You… Knew?" Sakura asked.

The man released a low threatening chuckle as he said, "Bingo"

A kunai appeared in his hand as he slowly started inching towards Sakura, causing her to nervously swallow her saliva.

"No, I must hold him off here. Come on, Sakura, what have you been training for?" Sakura encouraged herself as she got into stance. However, as the man approached, she still felt more and more nervous.

On the other end of the camp, Saori had also just made it to the prison area. It was a two-storied building with a large basement beneath it. Saori had to fight through both floors of bandits until she had finally made it to the prison area.

Once she went downstairs, a dark area greeted her. The place was made out of cobblestone, making it felt very cold and damp in here, and the only source of light were a few candles.

Saori slowly made her way across the straight path, on each side of the room there were rows of prison cells full of frightened women.

After making sure that there were no enemies here, Saori used her kunai to pick a lock of one of the cells. She then walked inside.

Saori wasn't used to comforting people, but as a woman she still sympathised with these frightened women. She drew out every drop of kindness within her and put on a small smile on her face.

"It will be alright now. We are shinobi from Konoha who were sent here to deal with these bandits," Saori explained as she walked next to a frightened girl.

Saori used her kunai again to pick the lock on the woman's chains, freeing her. Tears welled up inside the woman's eyes.

"You are Konoha shinobi?" she asked.

Saori only nodded her head as she picked the locks on the women's chains.

"T-thank you very much for helping us. If it weren't for you, we… We…" the woman next to Saori began to cry.

Saori's gaze softened as she let out a helpless sigh.

"We wouldn't get money for our job," the woman finished her sentence.

Saori froze in place, her head processing the woman's words.

Stab!

Saori felt a sharp pain in her abdomen. She slowly looked down only to see a knife stabbed into her abdomen. Her eyes then travelled up to meet the mocking eyes of one of the prisoners.

"Y-you…" Saori stammered.

Alarm bells rang inside Saori's head as she suddenly noticed that each woman in the cell had a mocking look in their eyes. Her chakra flared around her and Saori quickly jumped out of the cell while breathing heavily.

With a grunt, Saori then took out the knife from her abdomen.

Creak!

Saori froze in place after she heard the creaking sound of the prison doors moving. What terrified her was the fact that it was a sound that come from the very beginning of the corridor. Saori slowly turned her head to the right and saw each prison cell door open. From each cell, women started pouring out, filling the corridor.

Saori then suddenly felt a wave of diziness wash over her, and took an unsteady step backwards.

"What is going on?" Saori mumbled as she felt her thoughts become clouded.

Her eyes then fell on the knife in her hands.

"Poison!" She growled quietly.

Step, step

Saori panted heavily as she slowly looked up and saw a corridor filled to the brim with women, looking at her as if she was a bag of money. In response, Saori could do nothing but grip the knife in her hand and prepare for the incoming onslaught.

Slam!

Another bandit flew beyond the horizon as Naruto punched him in the face. Naruto had already forgotten how long he had been fighting these bandits. His initial anger had already been vented out and his usual calm had returned.

However, a bad feeling had formed inside Naruto's stomach at some point.

"Something is wrong. Why is Kakashi not done yet? Why are these bandits not scattering? No, rather, aren't there too many bandits? It feels like they just keep on coming out of nowhere," Naruto's eyes narrowed as he looked around him.

Naruto had already been fighting for a while, so a large stretch of land was covered with unconscious or dead bandits.

Although the bandits haven't scattered yet, Naruto's strength had put some fear in them. Currently, there was a circle in the middle of the large bandit group. The only person inside the circle was Naruto, who was sweaty and out of breath.

As Naruto looked at the arrogant looks in each bandit's eyes, Naruto's mood dropped lower.

"Something is definitely wrong. Did these bandits predict our movements? No, how can it be possible? These guys shouldn't know that we already knew about the sneak attack… In that case, did Takeshi sell us out?" Thoughts flashed inside Naruto's mind, but he just couldn't come to a conclusion.

The most suspicious one was definitely Takeshi, but even then, the bandits shouldn't have been able to predict their fast response. Team 7 had attacked the bandits the very next evening after their poisoning attempt.

Many would even consider this a reckless tactic because team 7 was lacking in preparations and information. The only real benefit of this strategy was that they should have been able to catch the bandits off guard. Though considering that they were shinobi, it should have been enough to succeed in this attack.

And yet, what happened was definitely not a leak in information. There was someone out there who managed to predict their fast response, and after Naruto came to this realization, his bad feeling became even stronger.

Stab!

Naruto's eyes widened as pain shot throughout his body. His head slowly turning back, Naruto saw an arrow lodged inside the back of his left shoulder. His gaze then travelled up and he saw that there were a group of bandits with bows on the roof.

Naruto's bad feeling had been confirmed.

The large group of bandits have already surrounded Naruto. At first, it looked like nothing more than a mob of people. However, Naruto reassessed their formation and noticed that the formation wasn't as messy as he had initially thought.

All gaps have been filled, destroying all possibilities of breaking through. The front line of the bandits all had spears in their hands, forming a wall of spikes to keep Naruto away. Behind the mob of people, on the roofs, there were bandits with bows.

"There is someone dangerous behind these people," Naruto cursed inside his head as he took out a kunai and blocked another arrow.

But this wasn't over yet as the bandits had switched from swarming tactics to an endurance run. Despite having archers now, the bandits weren't in a rush. The archers started showering Naruto with arrows, forcing him to play defence. The moment Naruto would show an opening, a bandit would run in and stab with a spear before quickly retreating.

The archers weren't stupid, they didn't unleash a reckless rain of arrows. All of their arrows were coordinated, making sure that there was not a single pause in the rain of arrows. Furthermore, with the wall of spears all around him, Naruto didn't even have a chance to use any jutsu. All he could do was use chakra to enhance his physique and defend.

As Naruto started defending, he couldn't help the fact that injuries started piling up. At first it was nothing more than a few scratches, but Naruto's stamina started running out and the injuries became more and more serious.

Stab!

Another arrow stabbed into Naruto's thigh. A pained growl came out of his mouth, but Naruto couldn't do anything but continue defending, searching for an opportunity.

"Arrows! The archers will definitely run out of arrows! Once they do, I will immediately use all my strength to break out of this formation!" Naruto thought inside his head as another arrow flew past his face, leaving a scratch on his cheek.

However, to Naruto's dismay, it didn't go as he had hoped. The moment the archers were running low on arrows, another set of archers climbed on top of the roofs. These guys then started firing, while the first set of archers climbed down to replenish their arrows and rest up.

Scratch!

Naruto had sensed a bandit run at him from behind, so he had just barely managed to avoid the attack. However, the spear attack still left a deep scratch on his body. Before Naruto could retaliate, the bandit ran back to his comrades.

"Shit! Shit!" Panic started welling up inside Naruto. Never in his entire life would Naruto have imagined that he would die at the hands of some bandits, on his very first mission.

His calm facade started crumbling and anger welled up inside of him. But he still didn't let anger take control. At this intense fight, he needed to calm down as much as possible, which is precisely what Naruto did.

His eyes scanned his surroundings and Naruto then charged towards the nearest bandits.

"My only chance is to get close to the bandits! If I can get close, then those archers will stop firing in fear of hitting their allies," Naruto quickly dashed forward.

Because Naruto had to shift his focus on moving, some arrows managed to get past his defence and left even more injuries on his body. However, Naruto could only grit his teeth and endure.

"Spear Wall!" Under a bandit's command, all of them gathered together and created a literal wall of spikes.

"Stab!" Once Naruto was close enough, they took a step forward and collectively stabbed forward.

Many spears hit Naruto and forced him back.

Stab!

This single moment broke Naruto's flow and multiple arrows stabbed into his body.

"Gah!" Naruto fell on one knee as he spat out a mouthful of blood.

"Die!" Naruto looked up to see a single bandit before him, his spear prepared for a stab.

It was this single moment. Because their allies closed in, the archers had stopped firing, and the bandit was still preparing his attack.

For a fraction of a second, a pause in their attacks appeared.

Naruto, who was searching for an opportunity all along, noticed this miniature opening. Naruto didn't defend, he simply lunged at the bandit.

The bandit took a step back out of surprise, making his stab go off course slightly. The spear left a deep scratch on Naruto's side, but Naruto had managed to survive the attack. His kunai stabbed forward and Naruto killed the bandit.

He then spun on his heel and charged at the bandits again. This small opportunity had changed into a big one.

These bandits had believed that Naruto was already at death's door, only a finishing strike was required. However, the bandits didn't know that Naruto had the Uzumaki bloodline, had spent 6 years recklessly training his body, and that he was full of adrenaline.

His will to live flaring like a beacon, Naruto had ignored all pain and forced his body to move, greatly surprising the bandits. This single moment was enough for Naruto to close in on the bandits and start another slaughter inside.

"Ha-ah!"

However, before Naruto could kill more than a few bandits, a massive shadow covered him. Through his blurry vision, Naruto's sharingan travelled up and saw a massive man stand before him, his mace raised up. With a yell, that man smashed his mace down right on top of Naruto, forcing him to step back.

"Now!" A bandit yelled.

A whirling sound came from behind him.

Before Naruto could do anything, an incredibly hard and cold object pressed against his body. The hard object then started wrapping around him like an iron snake.

Naruto's eyes traveled down and saw that it was actually an iron chain with two weights on each end - an iron bola!

The iron bola had firmly tied itself around Naruto's upper body, sealing the usage of his arms.

Stab!

While Naruto was forced to jump back and was tied up by the bola, the bandits had managed to make a circle around Naruto again. As soon as their allies were out of the way, several more arrows were unleashed and stabbed into Naruto.

"Gah!" Naruto spat out another mouthful of blood and fell to his knees.

His gaze was blurry and he slowly looked up. A rogue shinobi came into his view. The man was very lean and was wearing a tight sleeveless shirt on the top, and baggy pants.

The man was standing at the back of the bandits, twirling around another iron bola in his hands with a smile on his face.

"Alright, finish him!" The rogue shinobi let out a command.

This time, the bandits took no chances. All of them understood now that Naruto was like a cornered animal. If they got too close, who knew what he would do. Because of that, all of them formed a wall of spears around Naruto, their stances firm. On the roofs, the bandits pulled back the strings of their bows.

"Gah!" A yell came from one of the archers.

All of them looked back and found a young girl on the roof. The girl was none other than Saori, and she had just killed one of the archers.

She had surprisingly managed to deal with the women in the underground prison. However, it was obviously costly, as she had some burn marks on her body.

"What were those whores doing? Shit! Ignore the girl, kill the guy first!" the rogue shinobi yelled as he moved to intercept Saori.

The archer bandits followed the shinobi's command and let go of their strings. The arrows drew a graceful arc through the air as they accurately flew towards the kneeling Naruto. In order to finish this, all of the archers participated, thus the result was that the sky was covered in dozens of arrows.

Naruto could only dumbly stare at the incoming rain. Because his sharingan was active, the rain seemed to come at him in slow motion. He could almost see the air being split by the tip of the arrows. He could see the fluttering feathers on the back of the arrows.

Naruto had already forgotten how many times the sharingan had helped him. Its amazing ability to predict the future movements of his opponents has lit up hope inside his heart many times. However, even his sharingan didn't see a way to survive today.

"Ahh… So this is the end?" Naruto sighed in his heart.

His gaze then travelled to Saori who was looking at him with great panic and fear. Her mouth was open and she was yelling something.

"Hmmmm, so even this girl can make a face like that. Surprising. I thought that she would be the happiest one after my death," The edges of Naruto's lips curled up into an unnoticeable bitter smile.

"Ahh, damn… There were still many things I wanted to do. I wanted to grow strong, to experience many things," As Naruto was thinking about his life, for some reason, his thoughts travelled to a particular memory.

It was an old memory of his youth.

It was a rainy evening then, and he had gotten caught up in it. As Naruto was making his way across the village, completely drenched, he walked into a figure. That person was Sarutobi Hiruzen.

At that point, Naruto didn't really know Hiruzen very well, so he still had his guard up against the old man. However, to Naruto's surprise, Hiruzen had invited Naruto to his house.

Once they had returned, Hiruzen had personally helped Naruto clean up and get dressed. Then they both sat on the porch and drank tea while talking. That was the moment when Naruto had finally understood what it meant to have a family. That was the only moment when he had gotten close to having one.

In his heart, once it had gotten difficult, he would always travel back to that place, back to that memory. He would sit on that porch with the old man and drink tea while talking about random stuff.

The ground grew dark as the arrows approached and Naruto closed his eyes.

"Just once more," Just this one time did Naruto allow himself to open up and travel back to that place.

Stab!

The first arrow stabbed inside Naruto's body.

Stab!

Then the second. Saori only looked on dumbly as the arrows had reached Naruto.

…

"How stupid… To be done in by a few powerless bandits, aren't you ashamed? Fight, you stupid brat!" A roar came from the very bottom of his stomach.

Naruto's teeth bit his lips as his eyes burned with fire.

Stab!

Another arrow reached him.

"Of course I want to live!" Naruto yelled in his mind.

He knew he couldn't do anything. It was nothing more than a desperate attempt. Perhaps it was simply Naruto's way - to never give up. Even if Naruto knew he will die, he wanted to cause trouble to these bandits to the very end.

Stab! Another one reached him.

Naruto unleashed a massive amount of his chakra, hoping that the resulting chakra explosion would knock away the arrows. It was the only thing he could do now that he was down on his knees and his arms were bound. However, what happened was very different than what he had imagined.

As Naruto flared his chakra in all directions, the massive amount of chakra traveled to every corner of his body. Naturally, that means that a massive amount of chakra had also reached his eyes. Like a sponge, his eyes started absorbing the massive amount of chakra.

His red sharingan then spun at fast speeds and started changing. The original three tomoe came together in the middle and formed a pinwheel with four spiralling curves.

Instead of the usual blue, red chakra exploded around Naruto. Every single person observed Naruto in mute silence.

There he was, right in the middle of the bandits, down on his knees. His body was leaking blood all over, there were multiple arrows in his body. However, none of the bandits dared to approach him. That is because Naruto had a massive red rib cage protecting him.

As the remaining arrows flew down, they hit the ribcage and bounced off as if they hit an iron wall. They didn't even leave a scratch.

Up on the roofs, Saori observed Naruto as he raised his head. His long hair moved aside, revealing his sharingan.

"That's… Mangekyo sharingan…" Saori mumbled quietly.


	10. Chapter 9: Debut of Team 7: Last Stand!

"Dear God, what is that?" One of the bandits mumbled as he gazed at the red rib cage with wide eyes.

"An abomination," Another whispered quietly.

"Monster…"

"Freak…"

Whispers surfaced from all around Naruto as the bandits simply couldn't comprehend the existence of the ethereal rib cage.

"Monster, huh…" Naruto blankly mumbled as the words entered his ears.

That was a word he was all too familiar with. After all, that was how he was called his entire life.

His red mangekyou sharingan looked around him as he gazed at the bandits. With this new sharingan, it seemed as if the whole world had changed. Even though there were countless bandits before him, he could see the movements of each and every one. He could see what they were doing now, what they would do the next second, and he, for some reason, felt as if he could destroy all of them now.

With a slow step, Naruto's trembling body rose from the ground. The chains on his body rattled, blood poured out of his wounds and his vision was slightly blurry from the tiredness, but he still managed to stand up.

Step

The first step forward towards the bandits.

The bandits didn't move forward. They only watched as the young boy, protected by the ethereal ribcage, was walking forward.

Step

The second step forward.

Even though he was still a few steps from the bandits, Naruto had a feeling as if he could reach them now.

No.

Not him.

It could reach them.

One half of the rib cage suddenly became unstable and started fluctuating. However, the trade-off was that a skeletal red arm suddenly formed on the stable half of the ribcage.

The bandits watched with wide eyes as the massive arm was raised high, formed a fist and smashed down.

Screams echoed, debris flew all over the place, blood shot upwards like a fountain, and body parts flew in all directions. With just that one punch, 3 bandits were killed.

Before the bandits could even process what had happened, the red claw was raised again and did a sweeping attack. The frail bodies of the bandits were once again sent flying, most of them dying immediately on impact.

"Run…"

"Run!"

"Run faster! He's a monster!"

The bandits started panicking as they saw the massive skeletal structure start massacaring their allies. Some of the bandits tried to retaliate, but their simple iron swords couldn't pierce the red rib cage.

The only strange part was that the red arm would suddenly disappear, and the rib cage would become solid once more when the bandits retaliated.

However, none of that helped. Their strength was too weak to break the ribcage. Meanwhile, the red rib cage would slaughter multiple bandits with a single move.

The morale of the bandits broke down immediately.

By definition, bandits were cowardly creatures. They sought safety in numbers, which also allowed them to fully unleash their vicious and greedy nature. But it was also very easy to break bandits. All you had to do was to show them that their current group could no longer provide safety.

Bandits had no loyalty, so they would run the second they felt that their life was in danger. That was what had just happened. At first, the bandits could still fight against Naruto because everything was going according to their leader's plan. Although Naruto was stronger than expected, and they incurred a lot of casualties, they still managed to persist because they saw that their tactics were effective.

But everything changed once the rib cage appeared.

Common sense no longer worked here.

A floating rib cage that protected the boy like an iron wall.

A massive red arm that was like the scythe of the reaper.

The young boy that everyone thought would die soon was walking around on his feet despite the many arrows sticking out of his body and the leaking blood.

That's why they ran. This kind of battle was already removed from their understanding.

Boom!

The house nearby was smashed to smithereens by Saori's fireball jutsu.

The rogue ninja cursed under his breath as he couldn't kill Saori. "At first it was the blond brat, now there is this black-haired one. Che, what the hell is with the genin in Konoha?"

The rogue ninja was sure that he could eventually defeat Saori, but she was too strong to be taken out quickly. Any other day it would have been fine, but he didn't have enough time to deal with her.

"Fine, I guess I'll pull back today. Count yourself lucky, little lady," The rogue ninja started going through hand seals as he gazed at Saori who was standing opposite of him.

"You!" Saori was startled once she saw that the ninja was about to leave the battle so abruptly.

"Heh, we are ninja. We run as soon as the situation becomes unfavourable to us," The rogue ninja smirked, but his body suddenly froze. A cold shiver went down his spike.

With wide eyes, he glanced back over his shoulder and saw Naruto standing there, his mangekyou sharingan glaring at the ninja's back. Even though no words were said, the rogue ninja could feel the massive amounts of hatred pouring out of Naruto.

"This kid… What kind of monster is Konoha raising?" It was the first time in his entire life that the rogue ninja felt so fearful of another person.

The sheer amount of hatred and killing intent pouring out of Naruto felt inhuman. No, it would probably be correct to say that no human should have been able to show so much hatred and killing intent in the first place. Even he, an experienced ninja, was trembling from fear.

The two mangekyou sharingan in Naruto's eyes widened and started spinning rapidly. The massive rib cage suddenly stopped fluctuating and managed to form a whole rib cage and one arm at the same time.

"Shit!" The rogue ninja cursed loudly as he saw the skeletal arm being raised once more.

He jumped into the air to avoid the attack and watched as the skeletal arm decimated the building beneath him. He felt cold sweat form on his back as he turned his gaze from the skeletal arm to Naruto. Brown eyes met red ones.

Suddenly, his body froze.

"G-Genjutsu…" The rogue ninja stammered as he stared at the rapidly spinning mangekyou sharingan with fear.

He knew that this was the end. The genjutsu of the mangekyou sharingan was too powerful to break out of quick enough, and the massive red arm was already next to him.

The next second, the ground shook with great intensity and all that was left of the rogue ninja was a blood splatter.

The bandits had already scattered in each direction, with only one or another remaining here and there, trying to hide from Naruto. Most of the fighting had already died down, and you could only hear Kakashi fight against Warden in the distance.

With a vacant gaze, Naruto stared at the ground and panted heavily. Blood poured out of him quickly, and the only reason he was still alive was because of his Uzumaki bloodline and the Kyuubi inside of him.

Arrows sticking out of him, his hands bound by an iron bola, and a red rib cage surrounded him, giving him a terrifying image when seen from the side.

"You…" Saori quietly whispered as she gazed at Naruto with wide eyes.

Naruto's mangekyou sharingan turned to the side and locked on to the girl, startling her slightly. Even though he was already about to pass out, Naruto still managed to recognize Saori through her chakra.

Indecision and hesitation appeared on her face as Saori looked at Naruto. She was the heiress to the Uchiha clan, but even she hadn't awakened her sharingan yet. She wanted to take back the eyes of her clan, but she knew she was nowhere strong enough to do it. She couldn't defeat Naruto before, so her chances of defeating him with his mangekyou sharingan had grown even slimmer.

And yet, her thirst for her own sharingan strengthened. Ever since Saori was little, she had always heard of how amazing and powerful the sharingan was, but those were only stories. Seeing it with your own eyes was different. Finally, she had witnessed the true power of the sharingan put on display.

"I could definitely kill Itachi if I obtained this power!" Saori clenched her fist.

Desire welled up inside of her.

She wanted to awaken her own sharingan.

She wanted to awaken her own mangekyou sharingan.

Taking Naruto's eyes might have been a shortcut, but even Saori could recognize that awakening her own sharingan would make her more powerful. That's why she had to make a decision. A difficult decision.

She bit her lower lip and clenched her fists tighter.

She hated him.

And yet….

"Hey, you... " Saori said while trying to repress her anger.

Naruto's eyes cleared up a little as he focused on the girl. His body tensed up slightly and he prepared for her to attack him. After all, now was the best chance for her to take her revenge for humiliating her.

Without saying anything else, Saori started walking forward until she stood right before the red ribcage.

"Open up, I'm not going to attack," Saori said through gritted teeth.

…

Naruto didn't expect such a direct method of approach but couldn't decide what to do. Although Kyuubi's chakra and his bloodline were keeping him alive, he still needed treatment. Multiple arrows were sticking out of his body, and there were many puncture wounds he suffered from the spear attacks. He had studied some medicine in case he was in such a situation. He was no expert, but he could at least give himself some time until he found a real medic. Still, the precondition to that was that he could actually use his hands.

After a moment of hesitation, Naruto opened up the red ribcage and let Saori enter. However, his mangekyou sharingan was glued onto Saori, observing her for even a hint of her trying to attack him.

Her body was tense from the desire to punch Naruto for all the things he had done to her, but Saori still entered the ribcage and used her slender hands to slowly untie the bola on Naruto.

The chains fell to the ground with a rattling sound, and Naruto regained the use of his arms. With a baffled look on his face, he watched as Saori threw him a first aid kit and then turned around to leave.

"There, I helped you. Now you owe me even more than before," Saori suddenly stopped but didn't look back. "If you have even the slightest bit of decency in you, then find out whose eyes are those and tell me."

Awakening her own sharingan would make her far more powerful than if she did a transplant. She hated Naruto, but it's not like Saori could just rip his eyes out and implant them into herself. The very idea felt so wrong that it wasn't funny. She couldn't kill people for the sake of power. If she did, then that meant she was the same as Itachi. She won't be like him. She won't kill other people for power. But there was still an opportunity here. Maybe she could investigate Itachi and the original owner of Naruto's eyes. Perhaps she could find a way to awaken her own mangekyou sharingan.

If helping out Naruto this time meant that she could eventually kill Itachi, then Saori could grit her teeth and push down her anger against him. Even though she hated Naruto, she only hated him for humiliating her. On the other hand, her hatred for Itachi was because he had killed their entire clan. The two couldn't be compared.

And so, she made her choice.

"If not, then I will take those eyes and find out on my own," Leaving those words behind, Saori disappeared from the place.

The only one left in the place was Naruto. He gazed at the first aid kit near his feet with a blurry gaze. Even breathing was getting tough.

"This was the perfect opportunity to take her revenge, but why did she help me and leave?" Naruto was confused.

After a few moments, he shook his head and looked around the place. Although the place was smashed to bits, he could still sense the aura of a few hiding bandits.

Naruto picked up the first aid kit and started walking once more. "Those guys won't give me the chance to heal. Might as well kill them and retrieve the documents for Takeshi while I'm at it,"

…

Clang, clang!

Kunai and chain hit against each other and fell to the side.

Kakashi crashed heavily into the ground and left two long skid marks as he was pushed backwards. With a loud grunt, he pushed himself to the side and avoided even more chains before creating some distance between him and Warden.

Kakashi and Warden were currently fighting in a forest, away from the base. As two powerful ninja, their battle was intense and caused great destruction to the forest around them. There were countless fallen trees, broken chains and kunai all over the place.

Kakashi had already raised his headband and revealed a lone sharingan in his left eye.

Despite battling for a long time, the two had only sustained mild injuries.

Warden was a type of ninja who focused on long-ranged attacks with the usage of his chains, while Kakashi was focused on speed. Both had a very tough time hitting the other.

Kakashi couldn't get close to Warden because of his excellent control over his chains and the sheer amount of them. On the other hand, Warden couldn't hit Kakashi because of his speed.

The battle entered a stalemate as they were searching for an opening, but Kakashi was growing increasingly nervous as he thought about his students.

Swish!

Suddenly, Saori appeared behind Kakashi and looked at the battle before her with a surprised look in her eyes. Kakashi also glanced back and immediately became relieved to know that one of his students was alright.

"Saori, are you alright? How about the other two?" Kakashi asked.

"Only some burn injuries," Saori shrugged as she looked at Warden with a cautious gaze. "Naruto, he… Is injured but still alive. As for Sakura, I don't know," Saori slowly walked up to Kakashi.

Relief washed over Kakashi once he heard that Naruto was also alive. He wasn't that worried about Naruto's injuries because Kakashi was one of the very few people in the village to know of Naruto's Uzumaki bloodline and the Kyuubi.

"As for Sakura… She should be fine, right?" Kakashi comforted himself.

Warden's chuckle broke Kakashi out of his thoughts. "Heh, are you sure you should be taking your eyes off me?"

Kakashi's eyes narrowed and turned towards Warden. To his surprise, Warden had retracted all his chains and was standing there leisurely.

"I'll tell you what, you let us go, and I will tell you where your third student is. How about that?" Warden chuckled arrogantly.

Kakashi's eyes widened. "What?"

"Your pink student is with us, is what I'm saying. It is a simple trade: you let us go, we let her go. Also, you better think fast, because she won't remain safe for long," Warden shrugged.

There was only a brief moment of hesitation. "Fine. Where is she?"

"Heh, just like Shin said. Here you go," Warden threw Kakashi a map and disappeared from the place like a ghost.

Kakashi quickly scanned the map with his sharingan while it was still in the air and caught it once he made sure it was safe. The map was very simple and had a red arrow with the words "Pink student here" written.

"Sensei, that eye…" Saori mumbled as she gazed at the sharingan in Kakashi's left eye.

Kakashi turned around to face Saori and pulled down his headband to cover the sharingan once more. "Sorry, Saori, but we will have to leave it for later. Completing the mission comes first,"

"It seems like everybody on this team has a sharingan except for the one Uchiha," Saori mumbled in her head, but still nodded her head outwardly.

"What do we do?" She asked.

Kakashi quickly memorized the map and placed it in his pocket. "We will have to split up. You go and secure the bandit camp; make sure no one comes in or leaves. Meanwhile, I will follow this map and go rescue Sakura,"

Saori nodded her head. "Alright,"

"Also, make sure Naruto is alright. I know you two don't get along, but you two are still teammates. You may not like each other, but maybe he will be the one to save you in the future," Kakashi smiled weakly before turning around and dashing towards Sakura's position at full speed.

"What?" Saori blinked her eyes twice. "Che, yeah right," She mumbled as she turned around and dashed towards the bandit base.


End file.
